Watch Civilizations

Survey the history of art, from antiquity to the present, on a global scale. Civilizations reveals the role art and creative imagination have played in forging humanity, and introduce viewers to works of beauty, ingenuity and illumination across cultures.

Watch Video from Episode 8 of Civilizations

Capturing Unspoiled Landscape
Thomas Cole regarded the American landscape as being what he called the undefiled work of Gods.
Clip 4m 20s
Capturing Unspoiled Landscape
Clip
Capturing Unspoiled Landscape
4m 20s
Thomas Cole regarded the American landscape as being what he called the undefiled work of Gods.
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The Cult of Progress
Full Length
The Cult of Progress
53m 18s
Examine the rise and fall of “progress” as an ideology, and see how the “civilizing” project that arose from Enlightenment
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The Cult of Progress
Preview
The Cult of Progress
30s
Examine the rise and fall of “progress” as an ideology, and see how the “civilizing” project that arose from Enlightenment
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Manet Twists the Conventions of Art
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Manet Twists the Conventions of Art
2m 30s
In what's considered his last great work, Edouard Manet created a masterpiece famed as a masterclass in visual subversion.
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George Catlin's Indian Portraits
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George Catlin's Indian Portraits
2m 18s
Catlin was by no means indifferent to the suffering of the people whose faces appear in these paintings. But he didn't pro
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Otto Dix's Definitive Artistic Statement
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Otto Dix's Definitive Artistic Statement
3m 44s
Otto Dix and his generation had borne witness to the horrors of World War I. They'd also been witness to the death of the
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