James Fox

Art historian James Fox tells the story of our ever-changing relationship with nature through the lens of some of the world’s most extraordinary artwork.

Series that explores national museum collections at a time of enforced closure.

Documentary series in which art historian James Fox explores how the power of images has transformed the modern world.

Art historian Dr James Fox traces the momentous impact of the west's contact with the peoples and cultures of the Pacific. It is a story of exploration, encounter and exploitation.

Dr James Fox looks at the art and culture of Japan.

Art historian Dr. James Fox makes the case for a singularly British renaissance, telling the stories of the artists and artisans who changed Britain forever.

Dr James Fox tells the story of three cities in three exceptional years - cities whose artists and thinkers, writers and musicians set the world on a new course.

Dr James Fox explores how, in the hands of artists, the colours gold, blue and white have stirred our emotions, changed the way we behave and even altered the course of history.

British Masters is a three-part BBC television series on 20th century British art, presented by Dr James Fox and first broadcast in July 2011 on BBC Four. The series covers the period from 1910 to 1975. The first programme explored the lives and works of Mark Gertler, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Walter Sickert, Wyndham Lewis, Lawrence Atkinson, David Bomberg, Richard Nevinson, Paul Nash and Stanley Spencer. The second programme explored the works of John Nash, Stanley Spencer, Alfred Munnings, William Coldstream, Paul Nash and John Piper. In the third programme, subtitled 'A New Jerusalem,' Fox explored British art in the aftermath of the 2nd world war, and examined the works of Lucian Freud, Graham Sutherland, Francis Bacon, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney and Keith Vaughan. In this final programme of the series Fox explored how the themes of evil, brutality, dehumanisation, consumerism and optimism can be seen in the works of these postwar artists. Fox contends in this programme that the death of Lucian Freud and the emergence of conceptual art have marginalised, eclipsed and brought to an end the tradition of British figurative painting. In each case, the backgrounds, techniques, subjects and interests of each artist are analysed against a backdrop of the social and political events of their day, especially the two world wars, the decline of Edwardian values and traditions, the poverty and economic turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s and the relative sense of optimism following both wars. The programmes also reflect a personal and national search for security in enduring but elusive British values, beliefs and identity in what Fox depicts as a century of crisis and upheaval, in which much more had perhaps been lost than gained.