Howson unveils powerful new work
THE profound effect of being the official British war artist for Bosnia left a lasting impact on Peter Howson.
A need to commemorate the forthcoming 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre was the catalyst for creating a new piece, The Massacre of Srebrenica.
Created specifically for St Mungo Museum, the work is a large -scale painting portraying the religious and ethnic conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s and depicts the worst atrocity on European soil since the Second World War.
It is on loan to Glasgow Museums for an initial threeyear period.
Peter said: “It is difficult to put into words the horror of the massacre of over 8000 men and boys in the town of Srebrenica during the Bosnian civil war.
“I was there as a war artist during this time and witnessed what I can only describe as hell on earth.
“The experience caused me many years of illness and the break-up of my family.
“I still have memories too painful to talk about, but I find that painting these terrible events helps me to try and understand why we do such evil things to each other.
“This painting records a moment in European history; a memory in my mind’s eye of what happened that day.”
Peter was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to record the conflict in the former Yugoslavia in 1992, a year later he was appointed official British war artist for Bosnia.
A second work by the artist, Homeless Jesus 2018, will also go on show.
Howson painted the piece in response to a cast of the sculpture of the same name by Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz, which was installed outside St Georges’ Tron Parish Church, Glasgow in December 2017.
Harry Dunlop, Learning and Access Curator with Glasgow Museums, said: “War and persecution motivated by religious and ethnic hatred continues to force hundreds of thousands of people from their homelands.
“We are hugely indebted to Peter Howson for loaning this extremely powerful and challenging painting to Glasgow Museums.
“It hangs in St Mungo’s most prominent space because we hope it, together with other works on show, will raise awareness of the need to recognise prejudice, extremism and exclusion and the hatred it creates, and ultimately take action to end it.’
The debut of Peter’s latest canvas is a highlight in a wider programme of commemorations taking place across Glasgow and beyond in 2020.