Shared Experience: Art and War
Work acknowledges the way in which society and industry were re-ordered during time of war, both through the effects of new technology and the need to replace workers and increase output. Some artists found themselves in unfamiliar surroundings, such as shipyards, forests and factories, recording a variety of wartime activities. The mobilisation of this labour force was vast, and men and women found themselves confronted with new skills to learn and new work environments to master. As part of this war effort, women increasingly replaced men in what had traditionally been male roles.

Corvette Galley
Leonard Brooks

Glass-blowers 'Gathering' from the Furnace
Mervyn Peake

Paraskeva Clark

Sections of buoyancy tank and floating caissons, Sydney graving dock
Herbert McClintock

Working in the snow, Australian Forestry Unit, Scotland
Sheila Hawkins

Hull Riveting
Frederick B. Taylor

ATS at Work
Rodrigo Moynihan

The Camouflage Workshop, Leamington Spa, 1940
Edwin La Dell

The Merchant Navy: The chain-locker
Henry Carr

Private Roy, Canadian Women's Army Corps
Molly Lamb Bobak

Ruby Loftus screwing a Breech-ring
Dame Laura Knight

The billy boy
William Dobell

Transport driver (Aircraftwoman Florence Miles)
Nora Heysen

Weighing Down The Tail, New Brunswick
Moses Reinblatt