The book:  A Terrible Beauty

About:  British Artists in the First World War

The author:  Paul Gough

As war broke out across Europe in 1914 the Vorticist painter Wyndham Lewis advised:  ‘You must not miss a war, if one is going! You cannot afford to miss that experience’.  He may have been playfully ironic, but he recognised that the Great War presented a set of complex challenges, that might make or break reputations at a critical juncture in British art.  Many artists, poets and writers have had to live with the uncomfortable recognition that conflict fuels their muse, invigorating the imagination and honing their creativity.

This book explores a diverse group of those artists and their work, from the conservative draughtsmanship of Scottish etcher Muirhead Bone to the irreverent angularity of the young gunner William Roberts; from the publicity-soaked antics of Richard Nevinson to the deluded ambitions of Sir William Orpen.  In it, Paul Gough examines the work of those who were made famous by the war, and those whose reputations were almost irretrievably damaged. He explores in detail the wartime lives of fifteen artists – many of whom saw active service — who are central to the way we now visualize the War on the Western Front and on more distant battlefields in Macedonia and Gallipoli.

Dr Paul Gough is Professor of Fine Arts at the University of the West of England, Bristol. A broadcaster, painter and writer, he has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad, and is represented in the permanent collection of the Imperial War Museum, London; the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, and the New Zealand War Memorial.

Members will recall that Paul gave the ‘Trinity College’ Lecture in July 2008.  His subject then was Stanley Spencer, and his well illustrated and informative talk provided the perfect introduction to the artist, and to the excursion which followed.   We are confident that the talk tonight will be equally absorbing and will provide new insights into that terrible time, with its Terrible Beauty.

The talk begins at 7.30pm, doors will open at 7.00pm.   Please be early, this is expected to be a well-supported event.

(This item first added on 23 January 2010)