'Back from the Front’: Art, Memory and the Aftermath of War
- Submitting institution
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Arts University Bournemouth, the
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Gough_32012 Back
- Type
- B - Edited book
- DOI
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- Publisher
- UK Cultural Development Partnership
- ISBN
- 9780955074257
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2015
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The book covers three interconnected exhibitions and commissions, created and curated by Paul Gough, exhibited at the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, 19 July to 17 September, 2014: (1) Shock and Awe: Contemporary Artists at War and Peace, consisted of 40 works by contemporary artists many with recent exposure to front-line war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans. (2) ‘Re-membering’ consisted of 20 artists, writers, architects, and composers commissioned by Gough through the Arts Council of England 2014-2018 funding scheme.
(3) ‘Brothers in Art’ reunited the work of John and Paul Nash in an exhibition of over 40 paintings, watercolours, and drawings from public and private collections across the UK. Gough’s book of the same title was published in parallel.
Framed within the discourse of cultural memory and the iconography of war and peace, Gough worked with artists, public and private collections (Tate Britain, the Fitzwilliam, British Council, National Portrait Gallery) to bring together artists, writers, composers, designers to address commemoration and conflict. Commissions included novelist Helen Dunmore, cartoonist Steve Bell, rapper Upfront MC, and composer Liz Lane whose new piece Silver Rose was played by the Lydbrook Silver Band and narrated by actor Robert Hardy CBE.
The exhibitions were funded by the Arts Council of England and other sponsors and formed a major part of the UK’s 2014 centenary commemorations of the start of the First World War. In addition to creating new commissions for diverse practitioners, the exhibitions also gave a platform for medal-makers from the US, UK and Europe to create ‘anti-war medals’. In addition to his curatorial research, Gough composed the text, disseminated findings widely, including an hour long 'Free Thinking' programme (BBC Radio 3, 1st July 2014) and had a paper commissioned for the British Library’s coverage of the arts of the Great War.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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