This is Civilization

Matthew Collings

Episode Four

Uncertainty

The final episode of Matthew Collings' epic sweep through the history of art and civilisation tells the story of modern art and culture, from its beginnings in artists like Picasso, Klee and Mondrian, right up to the present day. It's a journey which ends with the booming contemporary art scene in Beijing. But what does it tell us about the future of civilisation?

Collings argues that modern art is fundamentally different from the art of the earlier periods of history he's been exploring in this series in one fundamental respect. Instead of offering us a heroic vision of humanity, and reflecting back to us the higher values we might aspire to, modern art has always tried to show us as we really are: unheroic, free, confused, and, above all, uncertain.