Christopher Wood, China Dogs in a St. Ives Window, 1926. Pallant House Gallery.
The 21st century has seen a surge of interest in English art of the interwar years. Women artists, such as Winifred Knights, Frances Hodgkins and Evelyn Dunbar, have come to the fore, while familiar names – Paul Nash, Eric Ravilious and Stanley Spencer – have reached new audiences. In her new book, The Real and the Romantic, Frances Spalding CBE, art historian, critic and leading authority on 20th century British art, takes a fresh look at this rich period.
Bookended by the intensity of commemoration that followed World War I and by a darkening of mood brought about by the foreshadowing of World War II, the decades between the wars saw the growing influence of modernism across British art and design. But as modernism reached a peak in the mid-1930s, artists were simultaneously reviving native traditions in modern terms and working with a renewed concern for place, memory, history, and particularity. Throughout these years, the pursuit of ‘the real’ was set against, and sometimes merged with, an inclination towards the ‘romantic’, as English artists responded to their subjects and their times.
The Real and The Romantic: English Art between Two World Wars by Frances Spalding is published (26 May, 2022) by Thames & Hudson. Ticket holders will receive a code to use online for 30% off the retail price via their website.
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