Art Appreciation: The Art and Artists of World War One

The aim of this course is to understand and study artists’ attitudes towards the war. Around Italian Futurism, a pre-war survey of European culture will first set things in context. We will then explore visual propaganda in France, Britain and the U.S., as well as the work of official war artists, such as Muirhead Bone, William Orpen, Anna Airy, Paul Nash, and C.R.W. Nevinson.

Many artists were also soldiers between 1914 and 1918, and some filled in their sketchbooks with what they saw and experienced. We will see what and how art was created in the trenches. We will also consider those who did not want to fight.

Finally, with Dada in Berlin (Otto Dix, George Grosz, Kathe Kollwitz), and with official commemorative art (Jagger’s Royal Artillery Memorial on Hyde Park Corner for instance), we will examine how World War One was remembered, and contrast different attitudes.