Great Artists in Their Own Words

The story of modern art as told in the words of the artists who helped create it. The first episode of the series unlocks the BBC archives to tell the story of the birth of modern art, in the words of the artists who created a cultural revolution - from the startling innovations of Picasso to the explosion of colour in the paintings of Matisse, to LS Lowry's industrial cityscapes and the often shocking work of surrealists like Max Ernst, Magritte and Dali.

Documentary series unlocking the archives to tell the story of the birth of modern art. Second in a series unlocking the BBC archives to tell the story of modern art in the words of the artists themselves - from the tortured images of Francis Bacon born of the horror of the Second World War to the joyous, sometimes ironical celebration of consumer affluence in the pop art of Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol to the hedonistic freedom of the paintings of David Hockney.

How radical late 20th-century artists took on centuries of art history and won. Last of a three-part series which unlocks the BBC archives to tell the story of modern art in the words of the artists themselves looks at how radical late 20th-century artists took on centuries of art history and won - from the notorious 'bricks' of Carl Andre to the 'living sculptures' Gilbert and George, from the shockingly explicit photography of Robert Mapplethorpe to the powerful nudes of Lucian Freud and sensational pickled sharks of Damien Hirst.