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American Visions

Documentary

Time magazine critic and writer of the highly acclaimed study of modern art, The Shock of the New, Robert Hughes now addresses his largest subject: the history of art in America.

May 28, 19971 seasons8 episodesEndedEN

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Robert Hughes

Self - Presenter

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Seasons

Miniseries

8 episodes

Premiered May 28, 1997

Episodes

1–6 of 8

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Ep 1

The Republic of Virtue

May 28, 1997

600m

Robert Hughes charts the foundation of a national identity that sought architectural inspiration from Greece and Rome. He also looks at America's earliest major painters.

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Ep 2

The Promised Land

Jun 4, 1997

60m

Robert Hughes explains how America was shaped by Europeans.

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Ep 3

The Wilderness and the West

Jun 11, 1997

60m

Art critic Robert Hughes looks at America's majestic landscapes, exploring how artists have contributed to the religious and patriotic connotations of nature.

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Ep 4

The Gilded Age

Jun 18, 1997

60m

Robert Hughes considers how the Civil War industrialised society, bringing steam power, the Brooklyn Bridge, plutocrats and an urban underclass. Nostalgia for loss entered the culture and brought the Museum Age.

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Ep 5

A Wave from the Atlantic

Jun 25, 1997

60m

Mass immigration at the turn of the century confirmed America as a multicultural society but also brought increased poverty and slum life. Robert Hughes examines how this was often reflected in art.

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Ep 6

Streamlines and Breadlines

Jul 2, 1997

60m

Robert Hughes considers America during the 1920s and 30s, including the skyscraper as the image of modernism, the Depression, regionalist art and black art.

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