The Art of the Second World War

Button, Ginny (2008) The Art of the Second World War. In: The History of British Art 1879-Now. Tate Britain. ISBN 978-1854376527

Abstract / Summary

This illustrated compilation of commissioned authoritative essays explores the transition from the High Victorian period to the Young British Artists of the 1990s as mediated by 1960s counterculture. The book emphasises Britain's complex role as a focus for the dissemination of modernist ideas, as a site for reactions against these ideas, and then details the political, social and commercial relationships which underpin the rôles of art and artists in the narrative of modern Britain. The book also interrogates the changing roles of art education, patronage and institutions and the impact of these changes. This is the third of a three-volume set the intend publishers as a definitive series on modern and contemporary British art. As a recognised expert I was commissioned to write an essay on 1940s war art. Other contributors to the volume include, for example, Charles Harrison, Penelope Curtis, David Peters Corbett, Matthew Gale, Andrew Stephenson, Julian Stallabrass, Barry Curtis, David Alan Mellor, Andrew Wilson, Eddie Chambers, Ann Gallagher and Nicolas Bourriaud.

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