Art of War: Artists of the Second World War (1939 – 1945)

In this extended lecture (two hours) we discover some of the art of the Second World War created by modern artists such as Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, Stanley Spencer and Paul Nash who painted the war on the home front industries and battles in the air.

Wallace also looks at  women artists whose work was commissioned to depict subjects as varied as the bombed out buildings of London during the Blitz, the evacuation of children from London and the South East to rural areas of Britain, the heroines of the various Women’s Auxillary Units, as well as the many jobs women undertook in industry including welding and vehicle fabrication as well as working as mechanics, the Women's Land Army which began in the First World War and  developed into a considerable force during the Second World War, and the women artists who were sent abroad and  depicted the release of prisoners from Belsen and the refugees in Germany.

Wallace then looks artists such as Richard Eurich, Charles Cundell and  Norman Wilkinson whose work  brought  the action at Dunkirk to life in their paintings.

She then looks at artists who were sent abroad as in the First World War to record and interpret the various theatres of war from Italy to Egypt, Normandy to Morocco by artists including  Edward Bawden, Antony Gross and Edward Ardizonne. Some artists experienced the deprivation of  prison camps  but managed to draw  what they saw and survive including Ronald Searle and Jack Chalker. Their harrowing but brave depictions of what they saw as prisoners is shown here.

Catherine Wallace is a freelance art historian, author, curator and lecturer specialising in British art with a focus on artists in Cornwall 1880 to the present day. www.cathwallace.co.uk

Image: Survivors from a Torpedoed Ship, Richard Eurich (1903–1992) ©Tate

Tickets: Early Bird: £15/£13.50

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