imagine… - Spring 2007 (2007)

Spring 2007 Episodes

1. Gilbert and George: No Surrender

May 8th, 2007

Arts series presented by Alan Yentob. Over the last 40 years, British artists Gilbert and George have fascinated, outraged, delighted and confounded the art establishment. Since their first appearance as 'living sculptures' in the late 1960s, their work has persistently taken a provocative, often uncomfortable look at both their own lives and the life of the city that continues to inspire their art - London. Alan is invited into their East End home, where the couple have lived together for four decades, for an intimate look at what is the most unique, productive and long-standing partnership in contemporary art.

2. Stealing Klimt

May 15th, 2007

Alan Yentob tells the story of the struggle by 90-year-old Maria Altmann to recover five Gustav Klimt paintings stolen from her family by the Nazis in 1938 and which have hung in the Austrian National Gallery ever since. It chronicles Maria's early life in glittering fin-de-siecle Vienna, her escape from Nazi terror and her fight to recover the Klimts against all the odds, which takes her to the US Supreme Court and pits her not just against Austria, but also against the Bush administration.

3. Scott Walker

May 22nd, 20071 hr 20 min

Alan Yentob tells the story of Scott Walker, who was one of the all time great voices of pop, and then disappeared. This is the story of one of the enigmas of modern music, who has influenced a huge range of artists from David Bowie to Lulu to Radiohead, told through his ever-changing music.

4. It's the Surreal Thing

May 29th, 200740 min

Surrealism has been described as one of the most successful revolutions of the 20th century, a revolution in perception that broke down the barriers between the world of dreams and the world of everyday reality. Its influence can be felt everywhere, in design and architecture, fashion and furniture, cinema and advertising. Even so, Surrealism is disdained by most contemporary artists, its ambitions regarded as overblown, its ideas out-moded and its greatest artists, like Magritte and Dali, dismissed as poster-art for teenage bedrooms.