Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One

by Emma Chambers (Editor)

A remarkable study of responses to World War One in Britain, Germany, and France, this groundbreaking book is the first to examine the memorialization and the social and aesthetic impact of the Great War. It explores how memories of the conflict have been filtered through specific cultural forms and political agendas, ranging from memorial painting and sculpture to representations of the destruction of bodies and landscape, and new aesthetic developments in art that offered ways of critiquing and reimagining postwar society. From the presentation of wounded war veterans to critiques of postwar corruption and poverty, Aftermath seeks to broaden the examination of war and memory beyond the modernist canon to show how both traditional and avant-garde art formed part of this process.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art

128 pages, Paperback

Published September 25, 2018

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thankfully, a little light on excruciating analysis and chock-full of imaginastic goodness. There are only a handful of essays in this companion to the Tate exhibit and they mostly focus on trying to draw the art of the post-war period and its classical rehash with dadaism, surrealism, and the hoary war memorial of the 1920s. The offerings succeed, I guess, though it's far more fascinating just to look at how artists portrayed their experience of the war, even those doing it at several removes, like the surprising number of women focused on here, which is refreshing. The best bits are on the war mutilated and how they were represented in art, Schwitters, and the controversy over particular pieces, like Nevinson's "Paths of Glory".

[Carlton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a catalogue of the 2018 Tate Britain exhibition, which explored how memories of the First World War were incorporated into the art of Britain, France and Germany in the following 15 years.
The various essays (about war memorials, Dada and surrealism, revivals of neo-classicism and realism) are thought provoking, even if I didn’t agree with all the ideas suggested, and they usefully reminded me and expanded my understanding of the period.
Disappointingly, the book is smaller than most exhibition catalogues, which makes it more difficult to appreciate the illustrations, especially the illustrations of items not in the exhibition itself, but used to expand upon issues in the essays, and I hadn’t really considered this as a requirement of exhibition catalogues before. Overall, it is a useful reminder of the exhibition, but I suspect that other books more successfully address issues that can only be noted here due to lack of space.

[Jeff Howells · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aftermath (Art in the Wake of World War One) is the catalogue of the current Tate Britain exhibition. It’s a fascinating period to study with some British artists I particularly am interested in (Spencer, Nash, Nevinson) alongside French & German artists.
The exhibition demonstrates how the war influenced artists long after the armistice in 1918 - and offers a nice additional perspective to the existing literature out there e.g. the books of - say - Philipp Blom.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of artworks related to the WWI.

Many of the pieces were stunning (such as ‘War’ and ‘Portrait of a Worker’) but many were a bit too bland / crazy for me.

[Lyazzat · Rating 4 out of 5]

After visiting the exhibition twice, it was great to read this book and review paintings with different story.

[Mills College Library]

704.94994 A2589 2018