Peace rally

The solemn mood is captured at a peaceful protest held in suburban Melbourne during the Second World War. A group of civilians are depicted standing alongside one another, with the central figure of a man standing in the foreground, his back turned to the viewer, addressing the crowd. This work addresses the realities of life in wartime through capturing the emotions and experience of ordinary civilians on the Australian home front. 'Peace rally' provides a powerful representation of the solitary nature of war; every figure stands alone in isolation from the next, each of them immersed in a highly inward and personal state of being. The dark shadows which engulf the crowd heighten the intensity of the moment and reflect the dark, brooding sense of the unknown generated by war.
Maurice Carter (1920 - c.1965) was a proponent of the social realist movement in art, which existed in Melbourne prior to, during and following the Second World War.