Art That Made Us: Rise Of The City (Thursday 12 May on BBC Two)

Episode six, Rise Of The City, charts the decisive shift of power from countryside to the city during the 19th century.

As the industrial revolution transformed the British Isles, a divide between city and country emerged, forcing artists to respond to the changes in people’s lives and the landscape.

Penry Williams attempts to capture the beauty of industry in works like Cyfarthfa Ironworks Interior At Night, while Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson reflects on the inspiration of JMW Turner, arguably the first environmental artist. Actress Maxine Peake reads from Elizabeth Gaskell’s campaigning novel North And South; architect Fiona Sinclair assesses Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson’s architecture for the people of Glasgow; and artist Jeremy Deller explores William Morris’ drive to bring nature back into Victorian homes through his hand-crafted wallpaper designs.

As art becomes appropriated by commerce in the late 19th century, some artists fought back with new individuality and flair. Drag artist Amrou Al-Kadhi explores the meaning and inspiration of Oscar Wilde’s writing; artist Shani Rhys James reflects on the quiet anger that underlies Walter Sickert’s Camden Town Nudes, an unflinching vision of the grimy realities of working-class lives at the turn of the 20th century.

Art That Made Us (8 x 60’) was commissioned for BBC Arts and BBC Two by Emma Cahusac, BBC Arts Commissioning Editor. It is a ClearStory and Menace Production and is a co-production with The Open University. The Executive Producers are Russell Barnes, Denys Blakeway and Michael Jackson and the Series Producer is Melanie Fall.

Airdate: Thursday 12 May 2022 at 9.00pm on BBC Two.

Season 1 Episode 6