World War 1 Paintings by some of our members

The First World War saw an amazing burst of artistic creativity. Of course, many of the artists and writers of the time took part in the battle revealing that emotion is always a strong driving force behind relevant and poignant works of art. There is a rich variety of styles from across Europe depicting the war, including work by the Futurists, as well as our home grown artists such as Paul Nash and David Bomberg (one of the Whitechapel Boys). Rightly so, many of the works depict the waste of human life, desolation and brutality of the war. A few show the construction side of war such as Nevinson's "Assembling Parts". Some try to depict the patriotic angle e.g. Kennington's "The Conquerors". Even here though the waste of human life is shown in some of the men with white faces (presumably ghosts) .The overwhelming horror of the war is evident in so much of the art. Look at "The War Cripples" by Otto Dix;  "Paths of Glory" by Nevinson; "Over the Top" by John Nash ( he was a self trained artist); or "Gassed" by John Singer Sargent, says it all​.

​Some of our Members were involved in this very meaningful and poignant project showing how valuable art can be illustrating life's events ( in this case the horrors of war ). 

 At Dedham Art Society we felt duty bound to seize this opportunity.​We held a special session on 11th January 2018 to get together to produce a body of work that we hope will be of value to show within the community.

​These Paintings are now on permanent display at the Barracks Chapel in Colchester.

 The gallery of work below includes the WW1 artwork produced by some of our members.