Dr James Fox has never really got conceptual art. And he's not alone. Conceptual art has been treated with suspicion and incredulity by virtually everyone outside the art world for nearly a hundred years. Ever since Marcel Duchamp first displayed a signed urinal and claimed it was art in 1917. So was he taking the piss? Or was he on to something, creating a whole new approach to art that has now lasted a century? Dr Fox embarks on an open-minded guide for the perplexed and asks 'What is conceptual art?', 'How should we approach it?' and crucially, 'Why should we care?'. Roaming between the past, present and future he examines a mind-bending selection of the most influential conceptual ideas and artworks, alongside meeting the leading movers and shakers of today. And who knows? In the end, Dr Fox might find himself unexpectedly seduced by this trickiest of art forms.
1971, and the Los Angeles performance art scene is flourishing. Chris Burden has just ordered a studio assistant to shoot him in the left arm with a rifle, Barbara T Smith is staging provocative interventions at F-Space, and Paul McCarthy is painting his naked body with mustard and ketchup in the name of art. And among them all, Bob Parks: an energetic young artist from the UK, living with his beautiful and interesting San Fransiscan wife, Myriam Morales. Life is perfect, for a time. But when Bob's marriage fails and Myriam leaves for Santa Fe, things fall apart. He walks the streets of Los Angeles for a year in a string bikini and sees his burgeoning art career come to pieces. Having been rescued by the parishioners of a South Central gospel church, and having spent six years worshipping and singing alongside them, Bob finally moves back to the UK to live with his parents in the New Forest. Despite planning to stay for only six months to finish a series of paintings and gather his thoughts, Bob stays for thirty years. We meet him as he continues to develop his art practice, continues to sing in a gospel church and continues to explore what he calls 'the R&B feeling'. Against this backdrop, Bob attempts to break free of a constraining and mutually dependent relationship with his mother, Miggie, whose health is failing. As time goes on Bob's obsession with his mother - and her impending death - deepens, before reaching a terrible and tragic conclusion.
In 1976 Carl Andre's sculpture Equivalent VIII, better known as 'The Tate Bricks', caused a national outcry. 'What a Load of Rubbish' screamed the papers, 'it's not even art'. Worse still, in the midst of a severe economic depression, the Bricks were paid for with taxpayers' money. One man was so outraged he went to the Tate Gallery and threw blue food dye all over at them. BBC Four marks the 40th anniversary with award-winning director Clare Beavan's entertaining and revealing documentary looking back at the creation of the sculpture - which consists of 120 fire bricks - and the frenzied outcry that followed. With contributions from some of the key players involved at the time, as well as contemporary artists, historians and critics, Bricks! tells the tale of what happened when modern art and public opinion came up against a brick wall. Did Carl Andre's artwork pave the way for a greater appetite for conceptual art in Britain?
To mark the 100th anniversary of Dada, Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves) takes us on an irreverent trip into the world of the influential avant-garde art movement. Absurd, provocative and subversive, Dada began as a response to the madness of World War I. But its radical way of looking at the world inspired generations of artists, writers and musicians, from Monty Python to punk, Bowie to Banksy. Jim restages an early Dada performance in Zurich's Cabaret Voltaire, where the movement began. And among those joining him in his playful celebration of the Dadaists and their impact are Armando Iannucci, Terry Gilliam, designer Neville Brody and artists Michael Landy and Cornelia Parker.
