"The Great War set in motion all of the subsequent violence of the 20th century. The war took millions of lives, led to the fall of four empires, established new nations, and negatively affected others. During and after the war, individuals and communities struggled to find expression for their wartime encounters and communal as well as individual mourning. Throughout this time of enormous upheaval, many artists redefined their role in society, among them writers, performers, painters, and composers. Some sought to renew or re-establish their place in the postwar climate, while others longed for an irretrievable past, and still others tried to break with the past entirely. This volume offers a significant interdisciplinary contribution to the study of modern war exploring the ways that artists contributed to wartime culture - both representing and shaping it - as well as the ways in which wartime culture influenced artistic expressions. Artists' places within and against reconstruction efforts illuminate the struggles of the day. The essays included represent a trans-national perspective and seek to examine how artists dealt with the experience of conflict and mourning and their role in (re)establishing creative practices in the changing climate of the interwar years"--

The Great War set in motion all of the subsequent violence of the twentieth century. This volume offers a significant interdisciplinary contribution to the study of modern war, exploring the ways that artists contributed to wartime culture as well as the ways in which wartime culture influenced artistic expressions.

A young art student enlists as a combat engineer in World War One. He draws what he sees in a number of canvas-bound sketchbooks which he carries in his helmet. From the time he enters training camp, throughout many battles and until he returns to the U.S. after the Armistice, he is constantly drawing whatever is around him. Once he is home, he returns to art school and his sketchbooks are put away. Ninety years later, his son runs across them in his attic. The Lost Sketchbooks is the book that tells the story of his experiences in The Great War and finally shares his marvelous artwork with the world.

In the years before, during, and after the First World War, hundreds of young Jews flocked to Paris, artistic capital of the world and center of modernist experimentation. Some arrived with prior training from art academies in Kraków, Vilna, and Vitebsk; others came armed only with hope and a few memorized phrases in French. They had little Jewish tradition in painting and sculpture to draw on, yet despite these obstacles, these young Jews produced the greatest efflorescence of art in the long history of the Jewish people. The paintings of Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine, Sonia Delaunay-Terk, and Emmanuel Mané-Katz, the sculptures of Jacques Lipchitz, Ossip Zadkine, Chana Orloff, and works by many other artists now grace the world's museums. As the École de Paris was the most cosmopolitan artistic movement the world had seen, the left-bank neighborhood of Montparnasse became a meeting place for diverse cultures. How did the tolerant, bohemian atmosphere of Montparnasse encourage an international style of art in an era of bellicose nationalism, not to mention racism and antisemitism? How did immigrants not only absorb but profoundly influence a culture? This book examines how the clash of cultures produced genius.

A collection of full-color artwork from World War One that illustrates the immense destruction and human turmoil of The Great War. World War One raged from 1914 through 1918. Before the advent of modern video and photography, artists documented it using a variety of mediums for newspapers and magazines from the era. Using their imagination and technical skill, these talented illustrators and painters created something beautiful out of something terrible that gives a candid look at one humanity's greatest conflicts. The Art of World War 1 collects more than 100 brilliant pieces from the WW1-era depicting French, British, German, American troops, and more involved in the struggle. Stunning color illustrations from artists like Francois Flameng, Charles Hoffbauer, G. Koch, Georges Scott, Willy Stöwer, and more fill the pages with intimate scenes and epic shots of destruction. Included are prints featuring air combat, soldiers charging, tanks, boats, and the aftermath of battle. Using pens, pencils, paints, and brushes, they captured the action and emotion of The Great War in a way that film could not. In many cases, these brave individuals traveled to the front lines and sketched, drew, and painted what they saw. More than 100 years after its creation, their art is more vivid and impactful today than ever before.

"Political power," says Howard Zinn, "is controlled by the corporate elite, and the arts are the locale for a kind of guerilla warfare in the sense that guerillas look for apertures and opportunities where they can have an effect." In Artists in Times of War, Zinn looks at the possibilities to create such apertures through art, film, activism, publishing and through our everyday lives. In this collection of four essays, the author of A People's History of the United States writes about why "To criticize the government is the highest act of patriotism." Filled with quotes and examples from the likes of Bob Dylan, Mark Twain, e. e. cummings, Thomas Paine, Joseph Heller, and Emma Goldman, Zinn's essays discuss America's rich cultural counternarratives to war, so needed in these days of unchallenged U.S. militarism.

Published on the occasion of the centenary of World War I, this Bulletin, which accompanies the related exhibition “World War I and the Visual Arts,” on view at The Met until January 7, 2018, explores the myriad and often contradictory ways in which artists responded to the world’s first modern war. Drawn primarily from The Met’s collection of works on paper and supplemented with loans from private collections, both presentations move chronologically from the initial mobilization in early August 1914 to the tumultuous decade that followed the armistice of November 1918. Ranging from expressions of bellicose enthusiasm to sentiments of regret, grief, and anger, the selected works—from prints, photographs, and drawings to propaganda posters, postcards, and commemorative medals—powerfully evoke the conflicting emotions of this complex period. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Verdana}