The Influence of World War I on the Arts during the Early Modern Era

“The Great War of 1914-18 tilted culture on its axis, particularly in Europe and the United States,” (1) where there had once been a life where things were, for the most part, predictable and easy to understand, and change was slow to come and influences came gradually. All of a sudden, the (Western) world was torn apart, and no one could be sure what would happen next. Despair and hurt covered everything, and the reality of the Great War seemed to have pulled the sheet that had been covering everyone’s eyes, that had kept them from truly acknowledging the tensions and problems that led up to the war, something they felt sure couldn’t happen because too many things would have been at stake. Impressionism, within the overarching Romantic Era, was the last major movement before Early Modernism. With the war came Modernism, a jaded, intellectual, philosophical movement fueled by disillusionment, the frustrations and fascination with industrialization, uncertainty, lack of religious belief, and the sciences. Modernist found that what had been traditional, so safe and familiar, was not going to work anymore in the new world they were living in.

Amiens, the key to the west by Arthur Streeton, 1918

This piece by Arthur Streeton is a landscape painting of Amiens, Picardy, France, the location of the Battle of Amiens and a part of the Western Front for the Allies. This painting shows the natural state of Amiens; lush with green with farm homes in the foreground. The sky is blue and full of clouds, though it is peculiar how vertical they are, as if they originated from the ground. This depiction of Amiens contradicts the actual conditions the soldiers endured. Heavy use of trench warfare occurred here during the Battle of Amiens. A recount from soldier Gunner J.R. Armitage goes:

“It was utterly still. Vehicles made no sound on the marshy ground … The silence played on our nerves a bit. As we got our guns into position you could hear drivers whispering to their horses and men muttering curses under their breath, and still the silence persisted, broken only by the whine of a stray rifle bullet or a long range shell passing high overhead … we could feel that hundreds of groups of men were doing the same thing – preparing for the heaviest barrage ever launched” (2).

Arthur Streeton was a “commissioned honorary lieutenant and appointed official war artist in 1918, he spent two periods in France documenting the Western Front for the Commonwealth government” (3). The style in which he painted this piece feels surreal, like a dream, as there aren’t any defined lines or subjects besides the land itself. In a place like this, in a style likes this, how could something as horrifying as trench warfare ever occurred here?

Blumenmythos by Paul Klee, 1918

Blumenmythos by Paul Klee features geometric shapes and vivid colour, things inspired by Cubism and his time in Tunisia, where “the limpid light of North Africa awakened his sense of color” (4). The single bird in the painting, seeming to be flying or falling downward toward the flower was inspired by Klee’s time as a solider during World War I. The bird “mirror[s] the flying and falling planes he saw in Gersthofen, and the photographed plane crashes” (5). I feel that the red could very well represent the bloodshed of millions of people that died during the war, and the bird falling is that sense of confidence in one’s own ability and surroundings being destroyed and let to fall to the ground to waste away. The flower that sits in the middle of the piece seems to be waiting for the bird to fall into it, reaching up to meet it. Something so beautiful turns out to be so horrible, which is why I find the title of this piece Blumenmythos, or Flower Myth in English, fitting.

Shop for Machining 15-inch Shells by Anna Airy, 1918, England

This last piece differs from the other two in that it depicts something directly about the war. Shop for Machining 15-inch Shells by Anna Airy was “commissioned in June 1918 by the Munitions sub-committee of the Imperial War Museum[.] Airy’s paintings were intended to stress the impact of ‘total war’ on British industry and the huge production effort required to wage war” (6). Airy, one of the first female artist to be commissioned during the war, was put under extreme conditions in order to create her paintings. Not only that, but her contracts were often very strict and restricted her in ways that her fellow male painters were never subjected to. “Regardless, Airy applied herself to her commission with determination, visiting major factories and forges throughout Britain. This often meant placing herself in harm’s way. During one visit to the shell forge at Hackney Marshes, the extreme heat of the shop floor burnt through the soles of her shoes” (6).

The painting itself leans more in a realistic style, as it is supposed to depict the average day in the forges and factories. However, there aren’t any defined outlines or breaks for the objects in the painting. In this way, things seem to blend in with each other a little bit. Some of this can be justified. Because of the extreme and dangerous conditions Airy was often exposed to, she found that she had to paint as quickly as possible while also retaining a certain level of quality about her work, all while making sure she stays aware of her surroundings so that she doesn’t get injured. To get something like this in the end really shows Airy’s passion and determination, as well as her professionalism.

1. Johnson, Reed. “Art Forever Changed by World War I.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 21 July 2012. Web. 2 Apr. 2015. <http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/21/entertainment/la-et-cm-world-war-art-20120722>.

2. “The Battle of Amiens: 8 August 1918.” Australian War Memorial. Australian War Memorial. Web. 2 Apr. 2015. <https://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/1918/battles/amiens/>.

3. Ann E. Galbally, ‘Streeton, Sir Arthur Ernest (1867–1943)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/streeton-sir-arthur-ernest-8697/text15219, published first in hardcopy 1990, accessed online 2 April 2015.

4. Rewald, Sabine. “Paul Klee (1879–1940).” Heilburnn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Web. 2 Apr. 2015. <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/klee/hd_klee.htm>.

5. “Paul Klee.” Art Forgers. Art Forgers. Web. 2 Apr. 2015. <http://www.artforgers.com/sw2.cfm?q=Paul_Klee>.

6. “War Art: Shop for Machining 15-inch Shells (1918).” The Telegraph. The Telegraph, 1 Nov. 2013. Web. 2 Apr. 2015. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/inside-first-world-war/part-three/10417628/war-art-munitions-production.html>.