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The art of conflict (part 1)
Paul Glinkowski talks to Angela Weight, Keeper of Art at the Imperial War Museum, and to some of the artists she has commissioned to make art in response to war situations.
The tradition of the war artist dates back to the First World War. Started in 1916 by Charles Masterman, head of the government’s War Propaganda Bureau, it has continued ' sporadically and in various guises ' until today. Langlands and Bell’s recent Turner Prize nomination for their exhibition ‘The House of Osama bin Laden’, the result of a commission from the Imperial War Museum (IWM) to research and respond to the war in Afghanistan and to the aftermath of 11 September, has brought the role of the war artist back into focus. Artists are identified and chosen by the museum’s Art Commissions Committee. Made up of artists, curators and museum officials, the committee meets “as and when necessary” no conflict, no commissions. The recent spate of wars in which the UK has been embroiled has meant that it has been busier than one might wish. The committee is always chaired by an artist ' currently sculptor Bill Woodrow ' who also sits on the IWM Board of Trustees. Woodrow believes it’s important that artists should be involved in commissioning their peers because: “We have a different sort of knowledge to curatorial knowledge, a different...
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