2/4 British Masters - 3. A New Jerusalem

• British Masters
Episode 3/3 In the decades after the Second World War, at a time when many had lost their faith in humanity, British artists turned to the great figurative painting tradition to address the biggest questions of all: what does it mean to be human and how do we create a more humane world? Such existential angst is captured in Lucien Freud's harrowing early portraits and Graham Sutherland's Pembrokeshire landscapes. Francis Bacon stared deep into his own soul to explore the human capacity for evil, while Richard Hamilton warned against the false hope of consumerism. As national pessimism gave way to a new optimism, David Hockney dared to suggest Paradise might be available to us all. But in the early 1970s, just as the world finally began to recognise the genius of Britain's painterly tradition, young artists at home turned against it.

[@edlangham5008]

stop hating on Francis Bacon three studies changed British art forever it is a true masterpiece...

[@TedPope]

Absolutely agree.

[@Garland67]

For tinfoilhat below: He's not an art critic, he's an art historian. Dr.James Fox has a great talent for seeing things about art that most people cannot. You don't get a PHd by sitting by the window looking at birds....

[@finch45lear]

+Julia Hrivnak True You get a PHd by Piling it Higher and deeper.

[@FirstLast-qb9iq]

He is an over-analyzing twit who gets in the way of the art.

[@cameronkrause4712]

Of course, you are right, you will never convince some, who are not just untalented, but mediocre minds at best.

[@johnmulvey5121]

Very good !

[@broodacres7135]

what a journey

[@TedPope]

Human Beings will be viewing Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion by Francis Bacon thousands of years from now but not one will remember the names or work of his critics. Bacon painted the triptych in 1944. The work is at once of the time yet well ahead of it.

[@johnmulvey5121]

Do we really need to go into the bathroom that Dyer died in?

[@TedPope]

When you gotta go you gotta go.

[@JohnHoganArtist]

Using found imagery negates one of the fundamentals of creativity: Imagination. Bacon has little, if no imagination.

[@bzxshor67mpts]

Bacon a perfect example of painting as bad as you possibly can and you get recognition as a master. Makes sense in a crazy world