A Crisis of Brilliance: Five Young British Artists and the Great War

by David Boyd Haycock

Dora Carrington, Mark Gertler, Paul Nash, Christopher Nevinson, and Stanley Spencer were five of the most important British artists of the twentieth century. From diverse backgrounds, they met at The Slade in London between 1908 and 1910, in what was later described as the school’s “last crisis of brilliance.” Between 1910 and 1918 they loved, talked, and fought; they admired, conspired, and sometimes disparaged each others’ artistic creations. They created new movements; they frequented the most stylish cafés and restaurants and founded a nightclub; they slept with their models and with prostitutes; and their love affairs descended into obsession, murder, and suicide.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History, Biography, World War I, British Literature

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Nicholas Kahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

davids my best friend in britain and wrote an brilliant book.
been so fun to see it from first ideas years ago to finished book, non fiction that reads like a novel
about my favorite artists and my favorite time period.
i am a bit biased but the guardian loved it too.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book profiles five young artists who enlisted at the famous Slade Art School in London in the years before WW1: Stanley Spencer, Paul Nash, Richard Nevison, Mark Gertler and Dora Carrington. I suspect few will have heard of any except the first two, and Nash principally because of his WW1 paintings of devastated landscapes. Haycock documents the fluster and outrage as visual art shifted from saccharine Victorian representation to modernist futurism and, indeed, how the artists themselves struggled with this.

I enjoyed reading their intertwining stories, especially the way their lives were impacted - fractured really - by the horror of war, especially in this centenary year. A hundred years on, one tends to imagine that British society back then was more military minded and patriotic than we are today and that the long arm of conscription was stoically accepted. This is a mistake. They were every bit as appalled as our modern day society would be, every bit as resistant. Their lives, of course, were never the same again, nor was their art.

The best narratives in the book followed the strained relationship between Carrington and Gertler and the early biography of Stanley Spencer. The latter is a perfect example of one artist's vision, one that was resistant to prevailing artistic 'movements', marking him out as different from the rest. Stanley was 5'2", a lover of home and family, a bible-reader, socially awkward, a virgin until 33, a hopeless but willing front-line soldier, an artistic genius. I am now trawling the internet for more of his work.

The book is long-winded in sections but will be enjoyed by those with particular interest in the art of that time.

[Keith Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating insight into the interwoven lives of five great English artists, Nash, Nevinson, Carrington, Gertler and Spencer. Their complex relationships and artistic successes and failures before and after the Great War are vividly brought to life. This was a time of great artistic and intellectual development in art, science, literature, centred around the Bloomsbury set of Roger Fry and Virginia Wolff, and drawing in the likes of Lytton Strachey, DH Lawrence , John Maynard Keynes and many other notables (the war poets Rupert Brooke and Siegfried Sassoon, the salon hostess Ottoline Morell, and too many more to mention). If you love British Art of the early 20th century, you will find much to enjoy in this riveting account of the 'Young British Artists' of their day.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful read. I like the way David Haycock writes.Insightful look into 5 artists I had no knowledge of.Very well written.Recommended

[Ruth Brumby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good essays by Frances Spalding and Alexandra Harris, a useful introduction by David Boyd Haycock, great illustrations and photographs and a very useful chronology.

[Debs Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the sub-title aligned the artists with the impact of WWI, I expected that I would be reading of the great loss of life - and therefore wasted talent - of this generation of young british artists. So, it was odd to discover that the five chosen artists all survive the war. None are caught up in the initial war fever and rush to sign up, indeed most are pacifists or have such leanings. A couple join the medical corps, but only Spencer later becomes part of an active unit. Two become official "war artists" and achieve renown for their 'war work'. A couple of our chosen lot are excluded for medical reasons - both physical and mental - and the stresses caused by the ever-changing requirements of the draft is most feelingly described.

I'll admit that my knowledge of art and artists had a hole which this book has - very nicely - filled. In fact, I'd previously only heard of two. I chanced upon Stanley Spencer's gallery in Cookham some years ago and having read this work, what I saw that day now falls entirely into place. Dora Carrington I knew as part of the Bloomsbury set via her connection to Lytton Strachey, but it was interesting to discover that her work remained largely unexhibited during her lifetime.

Despite being chock-full of information, this is not a dry book; I came away with a genuine feel for each artist, for their indivual personalities, their quirks, weaknesses or strenghts.

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-researched and very readable account of five British artists who studied together at the Slade before their careers were interrupted by the First World War. All came from very different backgrounds, and responded to the war in very different ways - whether they made the war their focus or tried to ignore it completely it nevertheless had an undeniable impact. This is a fascinating insight into the state of the British art world at a time of huge social and cultural upheaval, as well as giving a more intimate picture of the relationships between the subjects through their lively and intense correspondence.

[William Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ostensibly this is a book for Art Historians but it has a far wider reach than that. As a work of art history it is excellent in its detailed research that brings these characters alive and adds so much to an understanding of their work. But it is this level of research that makes this book read like a novel and bind us into the fate of these artists. From the neurotic but at times admirable Nevinson to the naïve Spencer and the ambiguous Carrington the reader is engaged in the life and times of what is a doomed group. Any art student with an interest in the 20th Century needs to read this.

[Mick Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating and moving acccount of five young artists who were all at the Slade School just prior to World War 1. The lives and work of Richard Nevinson, Paul Nash, Dora Carrington, Stanley Spencer and Mark Gertler are beautifully and sympathetically described. The profound impact of the War is dealt with in detail. Only weakness is that it would be better with more reproductions of their work.
If you enjoy this then check out the DVD of "Carrington" starring Emma Thompson.

[Topping & Company Booksellers of Ely]

'A Crisis of Brilliance' is a sublime biography of 5 young artists in the 1910s. It has the fluency and gripping narrative of a novel as it plaits together the lives of, interests and art of the artists. One of my favouite reads the biography the excitement and terror of the period as the artisits move from the safety of the Slade into war.If you enjoyed Pat barker's novels , this is a must-read!
Katie

[Fazackerly Toast · Rating 3 out of 5]

very interesting. Introduced me to some artists I'd never heard of and a period I knew very little about. Makes me want to go and look at some paintings now! As it happened I was wanting to go to the Tate Britain to look at the Late Turner exhibition, so now I shall extend it to see some Spencer, Nash, Gertler and Carrington, if any are on display. I hope so.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly enjoyable account of 5 artists from the Slade and how WWI impacted on their painting. Their lives&loves are novel-like as evinced by Pat Barker's Life Class, not to mention Aldous Huxley's Chrome Yellow and Gilbert Cannan's Mendel.

[Lisa Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book - brilliantly researched. Highly recommend.

[Andrea W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting, well researched

[Andy Emery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well-written account of the lives of artists and the Great War.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really absorbing account of the group of WWI Slade artists who went on to become part of the British post-war art scene.

[Mark Little · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reflection of the impact of the Great War on five British artists whose paths had crossed at the Slade and in London generally, both before, during and after the First World War. Well written, the narrative follows their bright arc and their declines. Once again - as in many books covering this period - one appreciates and reflects upon the impact of the great upheaval of war upon artistic sensibility, indeed how it led to the artist's greatest work only to be altered by a changed world after the war had ended. Fascinating and sad in equal measure.