Modern war through the eyes of our artists
Culture Perth and Kinross is continuing its season of war-themed art and events with an exhibition of war artists and photographers spanning 160 years of world conflict until nearly the end of February.
The Art of War, running at Perth Museum and Art Gallery, features paintings, photographs and sculptures depicting everything from 19th century British Army skirmishes through to the wars in Bosnia and Afghanistan, all through the eyes of artists and photographers who witnessed war first-hand.
While some were commissioned as official war artists, other artists captured their experiences of conflict while on active service.
The exhibition includes work by figurative painter Peter Howson, renowned for his penetrating portrayals of Bosnia; Sir Muirhead Bone, the UK’s first official war artist who became a household name; Tim Hetherington, the reportage photographer and filmmaker who was killed in a mortar attack in Libya; and Aberdeen-born painter Joyce Cairns, a now Dundee-based artist influenced by the genocide in Bosnia.
The Art of War is part of the Perth and Kinross Remembers, a fivemonth series of exhibitions and events.
It includes two touring exhibitions in collaboration with National Museums of Scotland and Perth’s Black Watch Museum.
A forthcoming talk is from David Rowlands as he speaks about his fascinating career sketching and painting soldiers and their encampments in war zones including Northern Ireland, Kuwait, and Bosnia, illustrated with first-hand pencil sketches, his oil paintings, and photos of his adventures. Booking is essential for the talk which is from 7-9pm on January 19. Suitable for ages 14 up.
A scene from a concentration camp in the Bosnia conflict