On show in The Barbican Centre in London is an exhibition titled ‘Postwar Modern: New Art in Britain 1945-1965’ and here the period of postwar reconstruction is viewed through the eyes of a varied number of artists and through the use of different media, from painting to sculpture and from collage to architecture.
One of the themes with the exhibition is the movement from artistic perspectives immediately post-war, amidst destruction, doubt and uncertainty, to the hope promised by the 1960s and the rise of mass consumption.
This development is borne out in multiple display rooms for the art is not arranged by artist of by time, but by different artistic movements. The only commonality is modernism and the 20-year period of time selected by the curators.
Irrespective of each school, there is an overriding artistic objective – to make sense of the world and to deliver a new alignment with the experience and values of modern industrial life.
Each area was interesting, even the exhibit entitled ‘Concrete’ which looked at Brutalist art. Can something be functional and aesthetically pleasing? This is one of the questions that springs to mind when considering the pieces within this part of the overall exhibition.
An example of building up from postwar destruction is a sculpture made of iron by Lyn Chadwick. The appearance is a floating arrangement of welded rods, shining a torch to a new period of rebuilding and industrial ingenuity.
Magda Cordell was an abstract painter who often depicted representations of women’s bodies. Her art is known for its sensuous, aggressive and primitivist qualities.
Made from wood cut-offs and designed to look precarious, are Kim Lim’s chess pieces (1960). Kim is recognized for her abstract wooden and stone-carved sculptures that explore the relationship between art and nature.
Something equally textured is Leon Kossoff’s depiction of a London railway junction, made with large quantities of paint designed to show the sweeping movement of trains. Kossof produced many cityscapes of London during his career.
Of the later pieces, in the section called ‘Horizons’, is the work of Gustav Metzger (who developed the concept of Auto-Destructive Art and the Art Strike) called Liquid Crystal Environment. This is a series of visual, dynamic sculptures created using heat sensitive chemicals encased in glass. These are intended to represent both the horror of nuclear war and the possibility of more enlightened change.
Postwar Modern makes for a compelling exhibition, and it is well worth catching at the Barbican Centre in London, UK. There are 48 artists and around 200 works of painting, sculpture, photography, collage and installation on show.
