The Other Side of the Medal
Surprisingly interesting exhibition at the British Museum looking at commutative medals made
in Germany in World War I.
Yes it sounds dull
doesn’t it but I found a fantastic collection of early German expressionist
art! Whereas in England the anger at the war seemed to come out through the
poetry in German they made medals.
There was a heavy
use of death images and whole section at the end talking about the history of
the German use of the Dance of Death and how it was picked up in the war. There
was Death selling tickets to the passengers on the Lusitania, Death
manipulating Zeppelins, despondent soldiers being led to death, Death pumping
blood from a battle field etc.In some of the images Death was a metaphor for
the allied armies but in other it was just death!
My favourite
piece was a medal showing Zeppelin’s over Tower Bridge. This never happened but
evidently it was rumoured to have done in Germany.
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