本系列片介绍了现代艺术的各个流派产生的历史背景、艺术特点及表现手法，并以大量精美的艺术作品和通俗易懂的语言，深入浅出地给观众上了一堂现代艺术欣赏课

《现代艺术大师》是英国广播公司BBC推出的一档电视系列节目，它由四部分组成，分别详细介绍了20世纪的四位重要的艺术大师：安迪·沃霍尔（Andy Warhol）、马蒂斯（Henri Matisse）、毕加索（Pablo Picasso）和达利（Salvador Dali）的工作与生活。在片中，镜头跟随主持人Alastair Sooke的脚步，走访了四位艺术家们生前的居所、艺廊及博物馆，甚至是他们最爱的餐厅等地，向观众展示了他们伟大的艺术贡献以及惊人的后世影响力。环顾四周，麦当娜的专辑封面、米菲兔的文具、甚至是你家的沙发和电话，也许就来源于这四位大师的创作……

本片将洛杉矶近年来如何建立城市艺术文化的进程纪录起来，内容则着重在发展迅速的佛若士画廊如何将洛杉矶原本并不活络的艺术活动，转变为可和世界其他艺术重镇可相比拟的盛况，并培育出如Ed Kienholz、Craig Kauffman、Wallace Berman等重要艺术家。

Manet is one of the main candidates for the title of the most important artist there has been. As the reluctant father of Impressionism, and the painter of Dejeuner sur l'herbe, he can probably be accused of inventing modern art. But his story is fascinating on many other levels. 　　As a piece of compelling biography, Manet's is the unlikely tale of the stubborn son of the most highly placed judge in France who decides to become an artist and embarrass his father. The resulting family tensions are the stuff of legend. His mother, by the way, was from a family that still supplies Sweden with its royalty. 　　Then there was Manet's dramatic private life, including exotic romantic affairs and a particularly horrible death when, riddled with syphilis and gangrene, Manet had to have his leg amputated. 　　But none of this would matter a jot were it not for the revolutionary art it provoked and coloured. Always cited as the father of the Impressionists, Manet stubbornly refused to show with them, and was careful to maintain an aesthetic distance from Monet, Renoir and the others. While they worshipped him, he looked down on them, preferring to continue his own remarkable departure from the traditional ways of art. The scandalous paintings with which he made his reputation - the outrageously sexy Olympia, the relentlessly paraphrased Dejeuner sur l'herbe - are the most totemic images in French 19th-century art. And the story of how Manet was rejected from the official salon, and ended up instigating the Salon des Refuses, can be understood as the epoch's key cultural event. 　　Using the life of Manet as his narrative arch, Waldemar Januszczak tells the story of a complex and difficult man who started a revolution that continues to rumble on today.

梅第奇家族的最重大的成就在于艺术和建筑方面，在文艺复兴时期起了很大的促进作用。乔凡尼是这个家族中第一个赞助艺术的。 援助马萨其奥并且定货重建圣洛伦佐教堂。科西莫·德·梅第奇著名的艺术性的合作者是多那太罗和菲利波·利比修士。那段时期里最灿烂的一笔就是米开朗基罗，从洛伦佐开始他在几代人的时间里都为梅第奇家族效劳。除了委任艺术和建筑方面的工作外，梅第奇家族也进行大量收藏，现在他们的收藏是佛罗伦萨的乌菲兹美术馆的核心展品。 　　在建筑方面，梅第奇家族给佛罗伦萨留下了许多著名的景点，其中包括乌菲兹美术馆，皮蒂宫，波波里庭院和贝尔维德勒别墅。 　　除了在艺术和建筑方面的成就．该家族在科学方面也有突出贡献，赞助了达芬奇和伽利略这样的天才． 　　这些惊人的成就使得梅第奇家族被称为文艺复兴教父（The Godfathers of the Renaissance）。 　　乔凡尼委任布鲁内勒斯基 重建圣洛伦佐教堂 1419年。 　　科西莫委任布鲁内勒斯基继续未完成的圆顶圣母百花大教堂。1436年 当时世界最大的圆顶完工 。 　　托莱多的埃利诺拉，科西莫一世的妻子，购买皮蒂宫 1550年 。 　　科西莫一世资助创建乌菲兹美术馆的乔治·瓦萨里（1560年）并且建立设计学院 1562年 。 　　玛丽·德·梅第奇，法国国王亨利四世的遗孀，路易十三的母亲，表现在彼得·保罗·鲁本斯的油画《法国王后玛丽·德·梅第奇在马赛登陆》中（1622年－23年）。

梅第奇家族的最重大的成就在于艺术和建筑方面，在文艺复兴时期起了很大的促进作用。乔凡尼是这个家族中第一个赞助艺术的。 援助马萨其奥并且定货重建圣洛伦佐教堂。科西莫·德·梅第奇著名的艺术性的合作者是多那太罗和菲利波·利比修士。那段时期里最灿烂的一笔就是米开朗基罗，从洛伦佐开始他在几代人的时间里都为梅第奇家族效劳。除了委任艺术和建筑方面的工作外，梅第奇家族也进行大量收藏，现在他们的收藏是佛罗伦萨的乌菲兹美术馆的核心展品。 　　在建筑方面，梅第奇家族给佛罗伦萨留下了许多著名的景点，其中包括乌菲兹美术馆，皮蒂宫，波波里庭院和贝尔维德勒别墅。 　　除了在艺术和建筑方面的成就．该家族在科学方面也有突出贡献，赞助了达芬奇和伽利略这样的天才． 　　这些惊人的成就使得梅第奇家族被称为文艺复兴教父（The Godfathers of the Renaissance）。 　　乔凡尼委任布鲁内勒斯基 重建圣洛伦佐教堂 1419年。 　　科西莫委任布鲁内勒斯基继续未完成的圆顶圣母百花大教堂。1436年 当时世界最大的圆顶完工 。 　　托莱多的埃利诺拉，科西莫一世的妻子，购买皮蒂宫 1550年 。 　　科西莫一世资助创建乌菲兹美术馆的乔治·瓦萨里（1560年）并且建立设计学院 1562年 。 　　玛丽·德·梅第奇，法国国王亨利四世的遗孀，路易十三的母亲，表现在彼得·保罗·鲁本斯的油画《法国王后玛丽·德·梅第奇在马赛登陆》中（1622年－23年）。

1989年2月5日，中国美术馆举办了中国现代艺术展，大展的标志为“不许掉头”。然而展览的主题却是对于85新潮美术运动的一次成果展示。一些行为艺术悄然登场，两声枪响震惊世界。二十年过去了，这些真正没有掉头的行动作为本次大展的重要标志进入了历史，成为今日批评家与艺术家共同分享的骄傲。本片记录了当年现场的七个行为艺术——史称“七宗罪”。

Enjoy a visit to MoMA and see masterworks from the museum's collection of modern and contemporary art. What do the superstars of modern art-van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Pollock, and Warhol-have in common with the Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle and an Apple iPod? All share the stage at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Here the two big questions are: What makes it modern AND what makes it art? MoMA's scholars, along with David Rockefeller (son of MoMA founder Abby Rockefeller), prove that the modern art of any age is not the newest; it's the next.

Most people have watched a spy film, but few have ever met someone from the intelligence community. So how close are real spies to the Bournes and the Bonds? Peter Taylor looks at the world of the modern day secret agent. 　　From James Bond to Spooks, from Jason Bourne to Tinker Tailor, spying is big box office business. Its vocabulary has become familiar to us all, from "stings" and "moles" to "dead letter drops" and "honey traps". 　　The fact is that the image of such operations as depicted on the big and small screens - and in airport blockbusters too - is firmly rooted in reality. The "tradecraft" is common to both the fictional and real world of spying. 　　Peter Taylor was given unprecedented access to serving officers from MI5 and MI6 　　Their names have been changed. They were not allowed to discuss specific operations or policy issues. 　　But those who actually carry out these covert and potentially dangerous operations could not be further removed from their imaginary counterparts, as I found out when I interviewed serving officers from MI5 (the domestic Security Service) and MI6 (the overseas Secret Intelligence Service).