Ambush and retreat: Herbert Read and the experience of the First World War

Art and the First World War: Global to Local is a series of public talks co-hosted by Leeds Art Gallery, Legacies of War and the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds, to be held at Leeds Art Gallery, The Headrow, Leeds City Centre.

In this talk, art historian Ben Read will offer insights into the war-time experiences of his father, the eminent art and literary critic, poet and essayist Sir Herbert Read. Drawing on the family archive, Ben will present unpublished drawings made by Herbert Read as a soldier during the First World War. He will also comment on how the conditions of war affected Herbert Read’s international relations and came to influence his later work and career.

As well as teaching at the Courtauld Institute, art historian Ben Read was Deputy Witt Librarian there until 1990, when he became Senior Lecturer in Art History at the University of Leeds. At Leeds he was Director of the MA Sculpture Studies programme, under the auspices of the Henry Moore Foundation, from 1990 to 1997. He is a former chairman of the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association, and of the Leeds Art Fund, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

See here for details regarding future talks in this series.

For more information on Legacies of War, contact Dr Claudia Sternberg.

Image: Herbert Read, 'An Old Soldier' (1917); ink and watercolour on paper (sketchbook drawing). Courtesy of Ben Read.