Special exhibition Reality in flames: modern Australian art and the Second World War opens at Australian War Memorial

The first exhibition dedicated exclusively to exploring the reactions of Australian modernist artists to the Second World War, Reality in flames, opens at the Australian War Memorial from Friday 3 July 2015.

The exhibition showcases 90 works comprising paintings, sketches and sculptures from leading artists such as Russel Drysdale, Nora Heysen and Albert Tucker and was developed through the official war art scheme.

The Director of the Australian War Memorial, Dr Brendan Nelson, said the Australian war artists enable today’s Australians to gain a clearer perspective of the Second World War experience.

“This was an incredibly important period in Australia’s history; it was a time of anxiety and great change. These works present a revealing and often original engagement with this war,” Dr Nelson said.

 “The 53 paintings, 32 works on paper and five sculptures displayed in this telling exhibition highlight the calibre and significance of the Memorial’s art collection, a collection that is often overlooked and underestimated.”

The artists explored the events they saw around them, focusing on new foreign and cultural encounters; the introduction to advanced technology to warfare; changing gender roles; the home front, leisure and recreation; and crucially the tremendous hardship, destruction and loss wrought by the conflict. 

Exhibition curator, Warwick Heywood, noted that when artists pictured aspects of battle or its aftermath they primarily focused on the brutal interaction of bodies, machines and landscapes.

“Many of these works explore the technological nature of the machines and weapons of war, and the destruction they caused, focusing on their unique forms, textures and rhythms,” he said.

Reality in flames: modern Australian art and the Second World War will be on display in the Special Exhibitions Gallery from 3 July 2015 to 7 September 2016.