Intelligent, gripping, innovative, Robert Hughes' eight-part exploration of modern art gets an airing on BBC Four. First shown on BBC Two in the 1980s, the series looks at different themes rather than presenting the art chronologically. Ben Lewis: "It is the greatest series on art ever made" The Mechanical Paradise - Episode 1 Thursday 8 July 10pm-11pm Traces how developments in technology inspired art between 1880 and the end of WWI, leading to movements like cubism and futurism. The Powers that Be - Episode 2 Thursday 8 July 11pm-midnight Hughes explores the interplay between art and politics, seeing how artists were affected by the development of mechanised warfare and ideologies like fascism and communism. The Landscape of Pleasure - Episode 3 Thursday 15 July 10pm-11pm The French artists who attempted to reconcile man with nature, from the determination of the impressionists to paint outside to Matisse's vibrant use of colour. Trouble in Utopia - Episode 4 Thursday 15 July 11pm-midnight How modern architects in the wake of the Bauhaus aspired to change societies with their designs, a move represented both by Le Corbusier and the plans for the city Brasilia. The Threshold of Liberty - Episode 5 Thursday 22 July 10pm-11pm The art movement that gripped its exponents with the fervour of a religion: surrealism. Artists like Di Chirico, Ernst, Miró and Dalí; brought the subconscious to the fore and attempted to tap into innocent and irrationality. The View From the Edge - Episode 6 Thursday 22 July 11pm-midnight Expressionism sprung out of the harsh, secular atmosphere of the 20th Century and evolved, through the strong colours and often sombre moods of artists like Munch, to the non-figurative work of Pollock and De Kooning. Culture as Nature - Episode 7 Thursday 29 July 10pm-11pm Artists began to take man-made images as their inspiration, leading to the pop art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein as well as Stuart Davis' collages inspired by jazz. The Future That Was - Episode 8 Thursday 29 July 11pm-midnight The final episode in the series explores the decline of modernism and how various artists have reacted to the consequent commercialisation of their art. BBC four