The Shock of the New
The Shock of the New is an eight-part documentary television series about the development of modern art written and presented in 1980 by Robert Hughes for the BBC, in association with Time-Life Films. It was produced by Lorna Pegram, who also directed three of the episodes. Overview. The series took three years to create and Robert Hughes travelled about a quarter of a million miles during the filming to include particular places or people. The series also used archive footage of featured artists. The series was broadcast by the BBC in 1980 in  the United Kingdom and by PBS in 1981 in the United States. It addressed the development of modern art since the Impressionists and was accompanied by a book of the same name; its combination of insight, wit and accessibility are still widely praised. Hughes remembers being directed by Pegram with her saying, "It's a clever argument, Bob dear, but what are we supposed to be looking at?". In 2004 Hughes created a one-hour update to "The Shock of the New" titled "The NEW Shock of the New". Series outline. The series consisted of eight episodes each one hour  long (58 min approx). It was re-broadcast on PBS in the United States. In the three cases, where PBS changed the titles, they are given in square brackets below. Quotations are spoken by Martin Jarvis. Book. The book of the series was published in 1980 by the BBC under the title "The Shock of the New: Art and the century of change". It was republished in 1991 by Thames and Hudson. The book was included by The Guardian in their list of the top 100 non-fiction books, and was still in print in 2012. Video releases. The televised  edition of "The Shock of the New" has been posted on the internet and is published as a set of DVDs.