Special Exhibitions

Battle Lines: Canadian and Australian artists in the field 1917-1919

Battle Lines explores the shared military experience of Canadians and Australians in the First World War, as represented by their respective war artists. The major military conflicts in which both forces collaborated, most notably Passchendaele (1917) and Amiens (1918) are the subject of the works on display. The artists' responses to the war ranged from documenting the every-day aspects of life behind the battle lines, to interpreting the devastation caused by war to the landscape and local communities.

A. Y. Jackson,
Sketch for Canada Camp, Camblain l'Abbe,
c.1917, Canadian War Museum
CN 16587

The exhibition features approximately 50 oil sketches painted in the field by six of Canada's most renowned modern artists including A.Y. Jackson, Fred Varley, Arthur Lismer, Maurice Cullen, J.W. Beatty and James Wilson Morrice. The Canadian works will be supplemented with 23 watercolours and four oil paintings produced by the Australian official war artists: Arthur Streeton, A. Henry Fullwood, Fred Leist and Charles Bryant.

Streeton, Arthur
Sanitary section camp, St Gratien
ART 03530

Battle Lines is a touring exhibition on loan from the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa and has been presented successively at venues in England and Canada. The Memorial will be the only Australian venue to host this important exhibition.

Sponsors: Kamberra Wine Company, WIN TV, Goanna Print, CPI Papers, Allkotes