James Fox (art historian)
James Fox is a British art historian and BAFTA nominated broadcaster. Fox is a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and specialises in 20th-century art.
Fox is most notable for presenting documentaries on the history of art for BBC Four. Fox is also a frequent commentator on 20th-century and contemporary art in the British media.
Education and career
Fox received a first class degree in History of Art from Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He then undertook an MPhil on British modernism, before spending a year as a Herchel Smith scholar at Harvard University.Returning to the University of Cambridge in 2006, Fox embarked on a PhD on history of art entitled Business Unusual: Art in Britain During the First World War, 1914–18, funded by the AHRC.
In 2009 he was appointed as a Research Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge. In 2010, he spent Michaelmas term as a visiting scholar to Yale Center for British Art at Yale University. He subsequently joined Gonville and Caius College as a Research Fellow in 2011.
For four years, while still a student at Cambridge, Fox worked with the British art critic, Waldemar Januszczak, at his production company ZCZ films. In 2008 Fox and Januszczak co-curated the Statuephilia exhibition at the British Museum; this included work by Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley and Marc Quinn.
In 2014 Fox was chosen as one of Apollo Magazines '40 Under 40': the 'most talented and inspirational young people who are driving forward the art world today'.
In 2015, Fox's academic monograph about the art of the First World War was published. Fox was also commissioned by Allen Lane to write two major non-fiction books, the first of which will be a cultural history of colour entitled: The Meaning of Colour. The second monograph will be entitled: British art in the Twentieth Century.
Fox has written for The Times, The Telegraph and The Independent, and has appeared on Newsnight, The Review Show, and BBC Radio 4's Something Understood.
Filmography
Television
Fox presents documentaries on art and culture for the BBC. In 2010, he presented the ninety-minute film The Art of Cornwall. A three-part series entitled British Masters was broadcast on BBC Four in July 2011. The series adopted a highly provocative approach: The Times called the series 'superb television... passionate, accessible and authoritative'; and The Observer called him 'absurdly lucid', and the Financial Times called it 'excellent' and engaging'.In April 2012, Fox's 2011 series British Masters was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Specialist Factual programme.
In August 2012, BBC Four broadcast his new series, A History of Art in Three Colours, an exploration of art history with reference to the colours white, gold and blue. In reviews of the series, Fox was singled out for praise. The Times wrote that he belonged 'in the Premier League of television presenters. He knows and loves his subject, so he doesn’t need to wave his arms around and resort to hyperbole. He is clear, unpretentious, insightful and willing to flout fashion, and he is a superb storyteller'.
In 2013, the Royal Television Society nominated Fox for its best presenter of the year award
In 2014, Fox presented a three-part programme called 'A Very British Renaissance,' on the BBC 2 TV channel, tracing a renaissance in British culture commencing in the early 1500s.
In August and September 2014, Fox presented a three-part series for BBC 4 called Bright Lights Brilliant Minds: a Tale of Three Cities, examining the culture and politics of Vienna in 1908, Paris in 1928 and New York in 1951.
In May 2016, he presented Forest, Field & Sky: Art Out of Nature on BBC 4, which explored contemporary land art and work incorporating the natural world. In September of the same year, he presented Who's Afraid of Conceptual Art? on BBC Four.
In December 2016 CNN released the first episode of their animated series, written and narrated by Fox. Each 90 second episode focuses on one colour and follows a fact-filled narrative. The first episode is Blue and was released on 18 December 2016 on and airs on CNN.
| Year | Title | Channel | Notes |
| 2020 | Museums in Quarantine, Part Three | BBC Four | Four part series. April 2020 |
| 2020 | Age of the Image | BBC Four | Four part series. March 2020 |
| 2018 | Oceans Apart: Art and the Pacific | BBC Four | Three part series. September 2018 |
| 2017 | The Art of Japanese Life | BBC Four | Three part series. June 2017 |
| 2016 | Colorscope | CNN | Ongoing series, December 2016 |
| 2016 | Who's Afraid of Conceptual Art? | BBC Four | September 2016 |
| 2016 | Forest, Field & Sky | BBC Four | May 2016 |
| 2014 | Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds | BBC Four | Three part series. August 2014 |
| 2014 | A Very British Renaissance | BBC Two | Three part series. March 2014 |
| 2012 | A History of Art in Three Colours | BBC Four | Three part series. May 2013 |
| 2011 | British Masters | BBC Four | Three part series. July 2011 |
| 2010 | The Art of Cornwall | BBC Four | December 2010 |