Going to Hell: British Artists and the First World War

Art and the First World War: Global to Local is a new 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.

This first talk in the series approaches the topic from a wider British angle. In Going to Hell: British Artists and the First World War, award winning art critic, historian, broadcaster and curator, Dr Richard Cork, will explore the many outstanding British artists that made immensely powerful work about the First World War.

Some, like David Bomberg, prophesied the conflict early in 1914 before finding themselves caught up in its unprecedented ferocity. Others, including C.R.W. Nevinson, were overwhelmed by their experiences at the front but then produced very impressive paintings. Even artists who stayed in London, like Jacob Epstein and Mark Gertler, conveyed the tragedy of the killing fields. Then, in the closing stages of the conflict, Paul Nash and Stanley Spencer summed up their heartfelt response to the suffering they had witnessed. They proved themselves capable of defining the horror experienced by so many people at that terrible time, when the whole world appeared to be going to hell.

Dr Richard Cork is an award-winning art critic, historian, broadcaster and curator. After reading Art History at Cambridge, where he gained a Doctorate, Cork became Art Critic of The Evening Standard and then Chief Art Critic of The Times. He broadcasts regularly on BBC radio and TV. Cork was Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge University in 1989-90, and Henry Moore Senior Fellow at the Courtauld Institute, 1992-5. He has acted as a judge for the Turner Prize and curated major exhibitions at Tate, the Hayward Gallery, the Barbican Art Gallery, the Royal Academy and other European venues. Cork is the author of many books on modern art, including A Bitter Truth: Avant-Garde Art and the Great War, winner of the Art Fund Award in 1995. He was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy in 2011.

See here for details regarding future talks in this series.

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