Truth and Memory: British art of the First World War
Quite early on in
the First World War the idea arose of using art to commemorate what was
happening. This began with Kennington’s wonderful “The Kensington’s at
Laventie” which used the unusual style of painting with oil on the reverse of
glass! The Government introduced the idea of official war artists some of whom
went out to the battle fields to record life there.
There were rooms
for different styles of art with a good room of Vorticist works including a
picture of a Dazzle ship by Ferguson which uses the colours of the ship to
create a Vorticist pattern. Next was a room of artists influences by Giotto
such as Henry Lamb and Stanley Spencer. As ever I loved Spencer’s “Wounded
arriving at the Dressing Station” where the figures converge on the light of
salvation, in this case the operating theatre.
There was also a
room looking at memorial which was worked round the permanent display of
Sergeant’s “Gassed” and showed wonderful example of designs for war memorials
such as one by Kennington and how different Orpen’s “Unknown Soldier in France”
would have looked with the figures either side left on.
One the opposite
side of the floor the concentration was on realistic and emotional
representations of the war and artists reaction to the war. I got very excited
as there was a whole room of Nevinson’s who I love. It showed how his style
charge from using futurist art to imply the mechanization of war , to a more
realistic style to depict the ordinary soldier.
There was also a
section on the work of the Army Medical Collecting Scheme including Gilbert
Roger’s “Gassed Soldier” in wonderful textured paint. In the same room I liked
Percy Smith’s “Dance of Death” etchings as they reminded me of a very similar
set in the British Museum show on German medals of the First World War. It just
shows how similar the experiences of the two sides were.
Reviews
TimesEvening Standard
Comments