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Hello next month sees the opening of one of the tape galleries most ambitious retrospectives Jackson Pollock in the fifties

He was seen as one of the leaders of avant-garde painting words like wild

Barbaric we used to describe the man and his giant abstract canvases

But for the Marxist historian Eric Homsperm Pollock is merely representative of the uncertainty

Which is plagued the visual arts in the 20th century and has led to paintings ultimate demise

He applaud instead and I quote

Advertisement and the movies which converted the masses to daring innovations in visual perception

Which left the revolutioners of the easel far behind

Professor Eric Homsperm's claims about the modern age are outlined in his latest book a monograph entitled

Behind the Times the decline in fall of the 20th century avant-garde

One of Britain's most eminent historians. He's been a leading figure in the British left for over 40 years

Joining us is Francis Morris program curator for the Tate Gallery of Modern Art which opens at Bankside in the year 2000

She's a specialist in contemporary art

She co-curated the controversial exhibition rights of passage art for the end of the century at the Tate

And she champions new work by many contemporary artists

Eric Homsperm can I start with the first couple of sentences of your lecture you say

The fundamental assumption behind the various movements of the avant-garde in the arts which dominate the past century

Was the relations between art and society had changed fundamentally

That old ways of looking at the world were inadequate and new ways must be found this assumption was correct

Can you tell us why you think that assumption is correct

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