Explore the Episodes
Episode 1 | The Second Moment of CreationPremieres April 17
The Second Moment of Creation
Episode 1
Examine the formative role of art and the creative imagination in the forging of humanity.
Episode 2 | How Do We Look? Premieres April 24
How Do We Look?
Episode 2
Explore how we look at the human body in art.
Episode 3 | God and Art Premieres May 1
God and Art
Episode 3
Consider how religion has inspired art and art has inspired divine representation.
Episode 4 | EncountersPremieres May 8
Encounters
Episode 4
See how art became the great interface when distant cultures met for the first time.
Episode 5 | RenaissancesPremieres May 15
Renaissances
Episode 5
Travel east and west— to Renaissance Italy and the contemporaneous Islamic empires.
Episode 6 | Paradise on EarthPremieres June 12
Paradise on Earth
Episode 6
Explore one of humanity’s deepest artistic urges: the depiction of nature.
Episode 7 | Color and LightPremieres June 19
Color and Light
Episode 7
Explore light and color in art in the search for greater realism and spiritual ecstasy.
Episode 8 | The Cult of ProgressPremieres June 26
The Cult of Progress
Episode 8
Examine the rise and fall of “progress” as an ideology.
Episode 9 | What is Art Good For?Premieres July 3
What is Art Good For?
Episode 9
Explore art in the age of revolution, war and profound scientific change.
Spotlight | An Artist's Perspective
ARTISTS EXPLORE THE THEMES AND TOPICS OF CIVILIZATIONS
ARTISTS EXPLORE THE THEMES AND TOPICS OF CIVILIZATIONS
About the Show
Simon SchamaCIVILIZATIONS, a new nine-part series presented in partnership with the BBC that tells the story of art from the dawn of human history to the present day —for the first time on a global scale. Inspired by Civilisation, Kenneth Clark’s acclaimed landmark 1969 series about Western art, this bold new series from Nutopia broadens the canvas to reveal the role art and the creative imagination have played across multiple cultures and civilizations, introducing a new generation to works of beauty, ingenuity and illumination created across continents.
Mary Beard
From the landscape scrolls of classical China and the sculpture of the Olmecs to African bronzes, Japanese prints and French Impressionist paintings, CIVILIZATIONS explores the wealth of treasures created through the entirety of the human experience.
David Olusoga
Acclaimed film, theater and television actor Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan, Spotlight, The Manchurian Candidate) will narrate its series, which tells the story of art from the dawn of human history to the present day — for the first time on a global scale. The principal contributors to the films are Simon Schama, art historian and Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University; Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge; and historian and writer David Olusoga.
In nine episodes, CIVILIZATIONS travels across the globe, visiting such cultural landmarks as the great mosques of Istanbul, the ancient cities of Mesoamerica, the Buddhist caves of Ajanta in India, the Aztecs’ Templo Mayor in modern Mexico City and the funeral site of China’s first emperor.