Existing comment:
World War I and the Visual Arts
When World War I began in the summer of 1914, few could envision the extent of the devastation that would result. This exhibition explores the myriad and often contradictory ways in which artists responded to the first modern war. Drawn primarily from The Met collection, with select loans from private collections, the presentation moves chronologically – from the initial mobilization to the armistice in November 1918 and the decade that followed – showing how the war influenced subjects, techniques, materials, and form decisions, as well as artists' basic approaches to their practices and positions in a moment of profound crisis.
Like many of their countrymen, a number of artists initially welcomed war – whether due to patriotic or nationalist sentiments, a desire for an adventure (which they assumed would be brief), or a belief that the conflict would lead to a more peaceful, spiritual, and anti-materialist era liberated from restrictive and outdated orders. Some served as soldiers, medics, or war artists, and several suffered severe injury or died. As the reality of the war became apparent, key figures changed their positions to express fierce condemnation, anguished regret, or pacifist sentiments.
Artists searched for an appropriate language to express their experiences. Some drew from avant-garde experimentation begun before the war, while others embraced a more traditional, figurative aesthetic, and still others incorporated elements from both approaches.
Propaganda in the form of posters, periodicals, postcards, illustrated books, and other printed pieces played an important role in garnering support for the war effort and determining how each side viewed the other. Later, some artists and publishers employed similar methods and materials to launch savage critiques against the war and the people, organizations, and nations they deemed responsible for it. Others turned inward, offering mournful reflections on the damage sustained by both sides and a hope that "the war to end all wars" would be the last of its kind.
The exhibition is made possible by The Schiff Foundation. |