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Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Four Goes Abstract: When Art Broke Free

8 August 2014

Explore one of art's most groundbreaking forms with a season of special programmes, unique archive, and exclusive online content including films, features & timelines.

is a week-long season of programmes including , which unlocks the archives to tell the story of abstract art in Britain, and , which sees art critic and painter Matthew Collings explore the rise of abstract art and how it rose to prominence in both the art world and in modern culture. At a time when conceptual art seems to dominate the art world, Collings argues instead that abstraction is the key artistic story of the 20th century.

Collings also features on Your Paintings, where he chooses and reveals how to read them.

Here on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Arts we take an in-depth look at the with renowned designer Peter Saville; saxophonist Soweto Kinch explores how jazz embraced abstract through its album cover iconography; Alastair Sooke talks technique as he gets , finding out just how challenging it is to create one of his famous drip paintings.

Also, in the form of four specially commissioned Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Four channel idents by the 2013 Turner Prize-winning artist Laure Prouvost, acclaimed artists John Smith, Sebastian Buerkner and this year's Turner Prize nominee James Richards, with insight from the artists on what abstract art means to them.

Kandinsky: Yellow, Red, Blue. 1925, detail.
Still from Sebastian Buerkner's ident

Abstraction on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Arts

  • Legendary designer Peter Saville explores abstract in everyday objects, from Kasimir Malevich and his Black Square through to contemporary product design via the Bauhaus and Dieter Rams

  • Four of Britain's most exciting artists have produced their very own Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Four channel idents, each inspired by the spirit of abstraction

  • The key developments in the history of abstract art, from relatively unknown artists such as Hilma af Klint to giants of the movement like Mondrian, Klee and Kandinsky

  • Can you spot the real Pollock? Alastair Sooke investigates what makes Jackson Pollock’s art special, with its apparently random swirls and drips

  • Celebrated saxophonist and MC Soweto Kinch highlights his favourite five jazz album covers inspired by abstract art

  • Art critic, painter and broadcaster Matthew Collings chooses key works by great abstract artists - Pollock, Rothko, Klee, Kandinsky, Malevich, Popova, Delaunay

  • Chronicling the restoration of Mark Rothko’s masterpiece, which was vandalised with graffiti ink in 2012

  • Abstract painter John Hoyland had his work dismissed as too rebellious. Years later he is at the heart of the British art establishment

  • Follow one of Britain's most celebrated painters, Fiona Rae, as she works on a new series of monochrome works, developing a more stripped-down visual language

Abstraction on TV

  • Preview clips and episodes from a new season of programmes exploring one of art’s most groundbreaking forms.

  • Documentary which unlocks the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ archives to tell the story of abstract art in Britain through the words of some of its leading lights.

  • Documentary in which painter and critic Matthew Collings charts the rise of abstract art over the last 100 years, whilst trying to answer a set of basic questions that many people have about this often-baffling art form.

  • World-renowned architect Zaha Hadid, perhaps best known for her futuristic architecture, explains how her work has roots in an art movement that is 100 years old.

  • A focus on American artist Mark Rothko, who believed that figurative art no longer connected us to human tragedy and that only a completely new visual language of strong feeling could wake humanity from its moral stupor.

  • Yayoi Kusama is Japan's most successful living artist. The 85-year-old is famed for her polka-dot-covered artworks, but behind her colourful art lies a troubled and difficult past.

  • 1968 film by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and the late experimental filmmaker Jud Yalkut. Kusama produces and stars in the film, which has a psychedelic feel and non-narrative structure.

  • Influential abstract artists, including Anish Kapoor, John Hoyland and Barbara Hepworth, discuss their work in this selection of programmes from the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Archive.

Art and Artists

  • The latest art and artist features, news stories, events and more from Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Arts

  • From Ackroyd and Blake to Warhol and Watt. Explore our Art and Artists features.

  • From old Masters to modern art. Find clips of the important artists and their work