Jan Gordon on War Artists in WW1
Jan Gordon delivered a lecture on the 28th February 1943 as part of a series of six talks presented at the National Gallery on the topic of "The Artist and The War." His talk was on "The Artist and the War of 1914-18." Shortly before this series, the National Gallery had begun showing a " Picture of the Month " as bombing raids lessened during 1942. Jan Gordon argued that the " war has made people feel vividly the limitations of the academic school. They have begun to realise that to express things of such a nature extraordinary methods are not only permissable but essential ." (Foss 2007). He had earlier written on the war art of Paul Nash in a similar vein: " And it is precisely this clearness of understanding which makes Paul Nash's war pictures so vividly engrossing. It is not possible to paint truly how this war has swept man, because horror will not permit this truth to be told. It is possible to depict the devastation of N