Lee Miller: a Woman’s War

Fascinating exhibition at the Imperial War Museum about photographer Lee Miller’s work in the Second World War.

The title was clever as the subtitle could either apply to the fact the pictures were taken by a woman or that the majority of them were of women. It was a really well organised and presented exhibition and I love the fact that it included paintings of her by Roland Penrose and Picasso. There was also good use of objects and it was very moving to see her cameras and clothes from the time.

I loved the first section on her work in Britain. Some of it seems a bit quaint now but they were powerful and subtle images. I loved a fashion shoot of a coat with leopard trim against a map and next to a as hat stand of tin hats and ARM helmets. The show talks about the role of fashion magazines in the war not just to show clothes but to educate and encourage women. I also loved an image of an office worker in the British Red Cross HQ taken off a landing looking down and including the diagonal stair banister.

Most moving though are the images she took during the liberation of France and the push into Germany. She had an eye for quiet irony such as a picture of displaced Russian women billeted in an old SS guard house next door to Evan Braun’s house. I am always moved by the famous picture of her in the bath in one of Hitler’s houses on the day of his death just hours after returning from photographing Dachau. The first time I heard the story it was told by her son Anthony Penrose at Farley Farm and he built the layers of the story up so beautifully and movingly.

The show talked as well about the work she did after the war looking at the effect the war had had on Europe and I loved one quite about it being “peace with perforations, dog eared corners and marginal notes”. It also looked at the effect on Miiler of the wat work and her breakdown and alcoholism after the war.

Closes on 24 April 2016.

Reviews
Telegraph
Independent
 
 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year Exhibition 2019

Image
Delightful exhibition at Clarendon Fine Art showing pictures from the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year TV series. I had loved the series which had set nine artists, both professional and amateur, to paint one of three celebrities. It then had a semi-final and final with them all looking at one sitter and in the final they also took on a commission. I loved the way you watched a picture build and how some were then made or spoiled by one stroke of paint.   Finding these pictures I knew so well in the flesh was therefore fascinating. None of them disappointed. My favourite artist from the final, Tom Mead, works looked just as good in real life if not better as you could see the detail. The show included his impressive self-portrait which he submitted to enter the competition, a wonderful fragmented picture of his reflection in a mirror giving a sense of movement. I loved that it included a large version of him and a miniature. His commission for the final of Jazzie B was
Read more

Thomas Becket: Murder and Making of a Saint

Image
Stunning exhibition at the British Museum on the life and afterlife of Thomas Becket. I studied Becket both at A Level and at university so I was really looking forward to this show and it did not disappoint. From walking in to see an old friend, the early Limoges casket showing the murder from the Victoria and Albert Museum, I was gripped. The show told the story well using fantastic objects and led you through his life, the murder, the political aftermath, his sainthood and miracles, and how Canterbury became a major pilgrimage site. It is hard to pick out the best objects as so many were wonderful. I loved that they had early copies of some of the five eyewitness accounts of the murder which made you fell you were almost touching the event. I liked the manuscript on his time in exile which was almost like a comic strip. How wonderful to get a 13th century font from Sweden which shows how far and how quickly the news that Henry II had integrated the murder spread. I think my
Read more

Courtauld summer school day 1

Image
Today has been my first day of this year’s week at the Courtauld Institute’s summer schools. This year I am doing “Painting in Renaissance Venice” which is being led by Michael Douglas-Scott. It was nice to see some familiar faces and there are at least five of us who did Michael’s course last year. Today has been two lectures. Firstly setting out the background of Venice in this period looking at how the city had set up a myth of itself, the role of the Doge. the nature of the Republic and the role of citizens. The second lecture looked at why the nature of Renaissance was different in Venice. There was still a sense of the coming of antiquity and humanism but in Venice it fused with the Gothic and Byzantine rather than replacing it. The day ended with a choice of gallery talks. I went to one on the second floor of the Courtauld on the coming of Modernism. In essence it looked at the Impressionists and discussed what they were reacting against and what themes they portrayed. All in a
Read more