"Visions of War Above and Below"

"Visions of War Above and Below" ran at Imperial War Museum London from April 2015 through 25 September 2016. The exhibition showed bold, thought-provoking and personal responses to modern war drawn from IWM's art collection, making connections between modern and contemporary artworks that explore the symbols and motifs artists use to represent and question the complexities of conflict. The exhibition was framed around how a century earlier the development of flight had opened a new dimension in warfare, a technological shift that inspired generations of artists. Works ranged from surreal portrayals of aircraft as creatures, to abstract views of bombing raids and detailed drawings of life in submarines, highlighting the dynamics of power and vulnerability between those positioned above and those below. Among the pieces on view were two paintings by Francis Dodd alongside lithographs from Eric Ravilious's Submarine series, made two decades later during the Second World War, which reviewers noted were among the lightest and most luminous works in the show.