Truth and Memory: British Art of the First World War

The largest exhibition of First World War art for nearly 100 years. York Art Gallery is the only venue outside London to display this collection of more than 60 artworks produced during the war and in its immediate aftermath. Many are by artists who themselves served on the front line and have helped to define how we understand the conflict.

Working either privately or as official war artists, they wanted to give a true sense of the horror, human sacrifice and tragic consequences of ‘total war’.

They reflected this in their fragmented depictions of soldiers, trenches, artillery, and in images of a torn and violated landscape. Modern artistic movements stressed the mechanised nature of the war and the new destruction this brought.