Clouded Vision: Art And Exhibition During WWI

During the First World War, the first efforts to memorialize the conflict were heavily influenced by the propaganda characteristic of the era. The style of modernism found new precedence during the conflict due to its unfiltered portrayal of war. Official British war artists were commissioned by the British War Memorial Committee (BWMC) starting in 1918, and many such as C.R.W. Nevinson and Wyndham Lewis contributed modernist works. These actions are indicative of those that drove the British government to become a propaganda machine. Firstly, the BWMC manipulated the growing popularity of modern artists and adapted their work to fit the government’s narrative. Secondly, the subjectivity of the modern works, an element that contributed to their popularity, was distorted as the BWMC saw fit. Lastly, the BWMC was founded by leaders who saw themselves as harbingers of culture, with little concern as to the everyday hardship the conflict brought. After the collapse of the BWMC, these works were acquired by the Imperial War Museum (IWM). The IWM tended to either place these works in their archive or display them in a very traditional manner, at odds with the themes and subject matter of the works. Thus, I argue, these paintings have been remembered for their involvement in memorialization politics rather than the artworks’ own interpretations of an unprecedented conflict.