C.R.W. Nevinson: Conflict,Contrast and Controversy in Paintings of War

Abstract

C.R.W. Nevinson’s place in the history of art is assured as one of the key British artists of the First World War. This article analyses the nature of Nevinson’s success and the controversy which surrounded his painting, within a context of taste and acceptability in wartime Britain. It also examines public perception and official guidance in an often dichotomous socio-artistic context, where censorship and the struggle for freedom often sat very uncomfortably side by side. The initial conclusions demonstrate, perhaps surprisingly, that Nevinson’s brand of early war modernism was actually preferable to the lies and armchair patriotism of the ultra-conservative right, and preferable also to the impenetrable abstractions of the uncompromising and now discredited left. Equally surprising are the conclusions drawn from a study of his technically conservative late pictures which were deemed unacceptable, not through any breach in academic orthodoxy, but because of their potent subject matter which, it was felt, demanded censorship. The article also questions whether or not Nevinson knowingly manipulated the censorship issue to continue his quest for publicity after the armistice.