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A Casket of Jewels: The Art and Architecture of Coventry Cathedral
One of the most important masterpieces of modern British architecture itself, Coventry Cathedral is also a repository for major works of modern British art. Art historian and BAFTA nominated broadcaster James Fox explores the cathedral’s architecture, designed by Basil Spence, and an array of its most riveting artworks: from sculptures by Jacob Epstein, Elizabeth Frank, and Jeffrey Clark, to Graham Sutherland’s tapestry of Christ in Glory, John Piper’s powerful Baptistry Window and more.
Time Period:
20th century
Themes:
James Fox graduated with starred first-class honours in History of Art from Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He subsequently completed an MPhil in British modernism before spending a year on a Herchel Smith Scholarship to Harvard. He returned to Cambridge in 2006 to pursue doctoral research in art during the First World War. He spent Michaelmas 2010 at Yale University, as a visiting scholar at the British Art Center. In January 2011 he joined Gonville & Caius College as a Research Fellow.
James is the author of British Art and the First World War, 1914-1924 (2015). He is currently editing a volume of essays on C20th Canadian sculpture. In 2012 he signed a two-book deal with Allen Lane (Penguin), for whom he will write a Cultural History of Colour, and a History of Modern British Art. Recent publications include: '"Traitor Painters": Artists and espionage in the First World War' (British Art Journal 2009); '"Fiddling While Rome is Burning": perceptions of artists in wartime' (Visual Culture in Britain 2010); and 'Conflict & Consolation: British art and the First World War' (Art History 2013).
James appears frequently in the media. He writes opinion pieces for The Times; has appeared on numerous radio and television programmes (including Newsnight, The Review Show, and Something Understood), and writes and presents art documentaries for the BBC. In 2011 his series British Masters was nominated for a BAFTA; and in 2013 he was nominated as best presenter by the Royal Television Society for A History of Art in Three Colours.
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Ely Cathedral's Lady Chapel: Devotion and Destruction
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A history and personal reflection of the stained glass Great East Window of York Minster.
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Out of the ashes of the Great Fire of 1666, rose a building designed by Sir Christopher Wren which would define the skyline of London.
9:45
Paul Binski describes how the apotheosis of English medieval decoration fell victim to 'hammer happy' religious reformers.