World War I artists

The Mule Track - Paul Nash (1918)

It was a return to some art history yesterday as I attended a study day at Morley College on the First World War artists. Originally this was to include a trip to the Imperial War Museum but unfortunately due to delay in the refurbishment the museum did not open on time and in fact now opens on Saturday. This was very disappointing but not the tutor's fault as she had asked three times for Morley to inform students. They failed to do so (they received a few complaints on the day as well as on the feedback sheet).

Nevertheless our tutor (whose classes I have been to before) was excellent and prepared extra material. In some ways, due to a back problem I have at the moment, this might have been a blessing as standing for any length of time is painful (but improving folks!). Our tutor, like me, is a fan of Paul Nash, so his pictures came up frequently as did Stanley Spencer  and Sydney Carline who went up in planes to sketch from the air.

I learned a lot from this course, not just about the paintings and artists but new things about the First World War like the Dazzle Ships - ships painted with stripes to confuse the enemy when they looked through their periscopes. Also I hadn't realised that conscription didn't come until 1916 or that there was a pals regiments. This would explain why so many friends joined at the same time - they were guaranteed to be in the same regiment. This also meant that when disaster struck a whole generation was wiped out in one village. Why did I not know this? It should have been obvious - I've seen enough stuff on TV.

Being a war artist also got you out of the trenches. Paul Nash campaigned to get his brother John  a job as a war artist. He'd done some pictures while on the front but as an official war artist you got paid and given a car and driver....and you were more likely to survive the war as you did not need to be at the front.

There were few female artists because they couldn't fight and serve but there were four commissioned, yet only one woman's work was chosen.

Nash and others were part of the Artists Rifles (there is an exhibition on in Basingstoke and other venues about these artists) and in all there were 5,000 art works. Some of these were shown during the war at exhibitions but our tutor does not know which ones. We also looked at art by pacifists which were very few they generally weren't shown (pacifists, especially absolutists, were treated badly).

I also found out that while the war was on the Suffragette movement ceased it's campaign. Instead they were involved in the Women's Work Sub-committee so that after the war they could show-case what women did in the war and use it to gain votes.

Another thing I didn't know was that at the start of the war many artists saw it as a sweeping away of the old art and bourgeoisie. They thought it a time of cleansing and the artists know as the Vortists painted rather mechanical scenes of men going to war - for them it was a good thing. Later, when the full horror of what was taking place came to light, peoples ideas changed as did the art.

The woman artist Frances Hodgkins who lived in Belgium was sent home, losing her friends, contacts and livelihood. She survived by painting memorial pictures of those who died. Parents would ask her to copy a photo of a son who had died in the war.. Our tutor wonders where all these portraits are now because as far as she knows none have come to light. Maybe they have been past down or thrown away, yet those who asked her to paint the pictures had no idea that she was a well known painter and how valuable these pieces would be now!

We looked too at some propaganda art, art that followed after the war and monuments. Again, in my ignorance I never knew that the word cenotaph meant empty tomb.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable day and I found myself making connections with books recently read and the TV drama series The Crimson Field. I shall be paying a visit to the Imperial War Museum soon to see some of these paintings in the flesh (power-point can never replace the actual object) and I hope to get to the exhibition in Basingstoke too.