New exhibition shows history of conscientious objectors who responded to world wars through artwork
A NEW exhibition exploring how conscientious objectors and pacifists responded through artwork to the world wars of the 20th century has opened at the University of Chichester.
Conflicting Views: Pacifist Painters, which is open now, brings to light the objecting artists who reacted to the conflicts and provides new insights into their varied work, motivations, and treatment.
A richly-illustrated book has also been released for the exhibition highlighting British artists during two world wars to the 1960s work of Scottish-Irish artist William Crozier, who was greatly impacted by both conflicts after watching films of the liberation of the camps in 1945.
The exhibition, which runs until Sunday 7 October, is hosted in the University of Chichester’s Otter Gallery at Bishop Otter campus, College Lane, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 6PE.
Book author and exhibition curator Dr Gill Clarke MBE is a writer and former academic who now works as a Visiting Professor at the University of Chichester’s Otter Gallery. She said: “Post-War Crozier produced a memorable series of paintings of skeletal figures in the landscape, which show a continuing preoccupation with the brutality of warfare.
“Mark Gertler’s anti-war masterpiece Merry-Go-Round (1916) typifies how some artists used their creativity to express their pacifist stance and their refusal to support Britain’s involvement in the war. Artwork from members of the Bloomsbury Group conveys their staunch refusal to cooperate in the war effort.
“Percy Horton took the radical stance of an absolutist conscientious objector and was imprisoned for two years in Edinburgh. Although like others he revised his stance in the Second World War with the burgeoning threat of Nazism.”
The recent exhibition is the latest in a series of displays curated by Professor Clarke at the University of Chichester, which has previously included the popular Women Artists: Power and Presence.
Prof Clarke’s books include Evelyn Dunbar: War and Country (2006); The Women’s Land Army: A Portrait (2008); Randolph Schwabe: A Life in Art (2012); Shorelines: Artists on the South Coast (2012); From Fields to Factories: Women’s Work on the Home Front in the First World War (2014); The Bishop Otter Art Collection: A Celebration (2016) and the edited Diaries of Randolph Schwabe: British Art 1930-48 (2016).
Speaking on the Conflicting Views exhibition, she added: “Sven Berlin registered as a conscientious objector but after witnessing the attacks on convoys in the Atlantic he changed his mind and enlisted. He went on to record his experiences during his service in France, Belgium and Holland.
“Quaker and conscientious objector, Kenneth Rowntree was commissioned to record non-military subjects. John Tunnard became an auxiliary coastguard and painted prolifically throughout the war.”
To find out more about Conflicting Views: Pacifist Painters at the University of Chichester visit the Otter Gallery at Bishop Otter campus, College Lane, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 6PE.
For more about the Professor Clarke’s book released alongside the exhibition go to www.sansomandcompany.co.uk/product/conflicting-views-pacifist-artists or see ISBN number 978-978-1-911408-31-4.
