British Art at War

[johncorrigan]

This has been a real belter of a series even by the high standards I have come to expect from Andrew Graham Dixon. I have loved Nash's work for a long time but was only vaguely aware of Sickert and had never heard of David Bomberg. I find AGD such a persuasive character - for me he's one of the best educators around. I'm definitely going to be exploring more of Bomberg following this fascinating episode and will be having another look at the programme before the week's up.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2TyhcbHtJjDcjC2sL8Rz6m1/andrews-episode-guide

[french frank]

The RWA had an exhibition, just finished, of the two brothers Nash - Paul and John. Really interesting to see, side by side, how they both developed.

[jean]

It has indeed been a marvellous series. Oddly perhaps I knew Bomberg better that the others because I was very impressed by an exhibition years ago I think at the Whitechapel. I didn't realise Sickert's range.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes - there's been a few comments on the "What are you looking at?" Thread. An excellent mini-series that got better with each documentary, I thought.

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm relieved to see that the series is on iPlayer, having clean forgotten to watch the Bomberg programme last night!

[gurnemanz]

I didn't realise Sickert's range.

Neither did I, nor that he ended up in Bath where I happened upon one of his paintings last week. I enjoyed the series very much and like AGD's style and strong opinions.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

fascnating and indeed excellent .... this evening on BBC4 there was a repeat of I Never Tell Anybody Anything Andrew Graham Dixon.'s other belter on Edward Burra

also this on Burra with Meades on R4

also on was James Reynolds's The Long Shadow in which he rather laments the view of WW1 shaded by the poets ... only seen part 1 with more to come but well worth seeing imho

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I didn't realise Sickert's range.

I prefer Walter to Richard, though!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

fascnating and indeed excellent .... this evening on BBC4 there was a repeat of I Never Tell Anybody Anything Andrew Graham Dixon.'s other belter on Edward Burra

also this on Burra with Meades on R4

also on was James Reynolds's The Long Shadow in which he rather laments the view of WW1 shaded by the poets ... only seen part 1 with more to come but well worth seeing imho

[clive heath]

While enjoying the second of the three artists and Andrew G-D's style of presentation, I noticed that he contrasted Sickert's rough and ready style ( a pre-echo of Lucien Freud) with this picture which was not on screen for long but the name rang a bell and I had to check it out. Too trivial to add to another thread but my paternal grandmother's grandfather's sister married the brother of George William Joy, Albert Bruce-Joy who was himself a sculptor. The wiki links are quite interesting and make me wonder how many accomplished artists/sculptors are not as well known as they might be.

G.F. Watts has recently had a resurgence with exhibitions at the Guildhall gallery and the re-vamping of his dedicated museum near Guildford.

The X below indicates that I tried to have the picture in the post but failed! It is accessible through the link on "this picture"

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

will that do it Clive?

[clive heath]

Thankyou calum and it shows one of the great talents of artists throughout the generations, that of the depiction of material, brocade especially as in Roger van de Weyden's "Deposition" in the Prado, among many others. One of my favourites in unpatterned fabric is Andrea del Sarto ,well represented in the Pitti Palace.

[gradus]

I agree about the wonders of textile depiction in painting. Their eyesight must have been extraordinarily sharp not to mention their hand/eye co-ordination. Similarly the manufacturers and weavers of the fabrics themselves were fabulously gifted and coped (near miraculously) without the modern aids of computer visualisation of fabric structure which even today requires considerable skill at the design stage when programming modern looms.

[JoeG]

An excellent series indeed - I have loved Bomberg's work since first seeing 'In the Hold' and his Spanish and Palestinian landscapes are stunning. I knew a fair bit of Paul Nash's work but saw quite a few new pieces to me in the programme. I just wished the other programme was about CR Nevinson who is my favourite painter. I like some of Sickert's pieces but I think Nevinson would have better suited the theme of the series. AGD excellent as always - I wish he presented every art programme rather than some of the more mannered presenters we sometimes get (though Tim Marlow is good too)