Offering a glimpse into the richness and diversity of Canada's post-Second World War military art, A Brush with War features 30 extraordinary paintings from the Canadian War Museum and other collections. An introduction and four historic overviews covering the period 1946-2008 provide thoughtful contexts for detailed descriptions of historic paintings by Canadian artists including Alex Colville, A. Y. Jackson, and Pegi Nicol MacLeod and contemporary military masterpieces by Gertrude Kearns, William MacDonnell, Allan Harding MacKay, and Scott Waters.
The unique artworks featured in these pages bear witness not only to Canadian military history, but also to a longstanding and ongoing commitment to create a visual record of that history as it happens. The book shows how Canada's two post-Second World War official art programs have allowed artists to expand the boundaries of military art in diverse and important directions, including highly personal responses to the complex realities of Canada's military operations abroad.

Brush with War: Military Art from Korea to Afghanistan

History

Brandon, Laura

Ogden, Glen

Americas

Canadian Museum of History

The definitive biography of a free-spirited artist whose paintings are among the most immediately recognizable Canadian artworks of the 1930s and 1940s.

Pegi by Herself: The Life of Pegi Nicol MacLeod, Canadian Artist

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

McGill-Queen's University Press

Bruno Bobak became a professional artist before he was 20 years old, and more than 60 years later, his work remains vibrant and in demand by public galleries and collectors in North America and Europe. Bruno Bobak: The Full Palette celebrates his life and work. Five authors present Bobak's life and artistic development, stage by stage. Herb Curtis, a novelist and essayist, outlines the artist's early years in Hamilton, Ontario. Laura Brandon, curator of War Art at the Canadian War Museum , describes Bobak's development as a War Artist, and internationally renowned painter, print-maker, and educator Gordon Smith recalls Bobak's formative decade in Vancouver. Marjory Rogers Donaldson, a painter and portraitist, portrays the richness of Bobak's mature years in Fredericton, and independent curator Roslyn Rosenfeld examines the remarkable depth and range of Bobak's drawings and prints. Introduced by Herménégilde Chiasson, the author and artist who is Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick.

Bruno Bobak: The Full Palette

Curtis, Herb

Smith, Gordon

Rogers Donaldson, Marjory

Rosenfeld, Roslyn

Individual Artists

Goose Lane Editions

Shared Experience Art & War : Australia, Britain and Canada in the Second World War

et.al.

Stanley, Peter

Australian War Memorial

From the vaults of the Canadian War Museum comes this selection of 110 seldom-seen images from the First and Second World Wars, drawn from a collection that includes nearly 13,000 paintings and drawings chronicling Canada`s military history. Some of the country`s finest artists--including A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, Mabel May, Fred Valey and later Alex Colville, Charles Comfort, Pegi Nicol MacLeod and Jack Shadbolt--recorded Canada`s experience of war from battlegrounds in the air, on land and at sea, on the homefront and abroad. Interwoven here with a compelling text, these works of art present a rich, varied and personal view of Canadians at war. While the images poignantly illustrate battle-weary soldiers capturing Vimy Ridge, fighter aircraft streaking across the open sky, desperate sailors drowning in choppy waters, euphoric, flag-waving crowds celebrating the armistice, military and art experts Dean Oliver and Laura Brandon explore the significance of the events, and unveil the political intrigue and strategic planning that took place behind the front lines. In concise and lucid prose interspersed with excerpts from the artists`and soldiers`own accounts, the authors reveal the links between Canada`s experience in both world wars and the country`s social, political, economic and artistic revolution. For those interested in art, in history and in the Canadian experience of war, Canvas of War is essential reading.

Canvas of War: Painting the Canadian Experience, 1914-1945

Oliver, Dean F.

Douglas & McIntyre, Ltd

From the vaults of the Canadian War Museum comes this selection of 110 seldom-seen images from the First and Second World Wars, drawn from a collection that includes nearly 13,000 paintings and drawings chronicling Canada`s military history. Some of the country`s finest artists--including A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, Mabel May, Fred Valey and later Alex Colville, Charles Comfort, Pegi Nicol MacLeod and Jack Shadbolt--recorded Canada`s experience of war from battlegrounds in the air, on land and at sea, on the homefront and abroad. Interwoven here with a compelling text, these works of art present a rich, varied and personal view of Canadians at war. While the images poignantly illustrate battle-weary soldiers capturing Vimy Ridge, fighter aircraft streaking across the open sky, desperate sailors drowning in choppy waters, euphoric, flag-waving crowds celebrating the armistice, military and art experts Dean Oliver and Laura Brandon explore the significance of the events, and unveil the political intrigue and strategic planning that took place behind the front lines. In concise and lucid prose interspersed with excerpts from the artists`and soldiers`own accounts, the authors reveal the links between Canada`s experience in both world wars and the country`s social, political, economic and artistic revolution. For those interested in art, in history and in the Canadian experience of war, Canvas of War is essential reading.

Canvas of War:: Painting the Canadian Experience 1914-1945

Oliver, Dean Frederick

Canadian Mus of Civilization

The Canadian War Museum possesses one of the finest twentieth-century official war art collections in the world. Until relatively recently, however, the collection has received limited public attention. In Art or Memorial?, author Laura Brandon explores some of the reasons why this may have been the case. At various times throughout its history, the war art collection has receded from and re-emerged in the nation's collective consciousness. Nevertheless, as an invaluable part of the official record of war in Canada, it is profoundly significant. Brandon argues that the value of the collection lies less in its artistic merit and more in its role as a site of memory. Art or Memorial? seeks to illuminate Canadian war art's sometimes-hidden presence in the nation's memory and to show, through both its presence and its absence, how it helped to shape, and will continue to influence, how we remember as a nation.

Art or Memorial?: The Forgotten History of Canada's War Art (Beyond Boundaries: Canadian Defence and Strategic Studies) (Volume 2)

University of Calgary Press

This is a truly encyclopaedic survey of artists' responses -- both ""official"" and personal -- to ""the horrors of war."" Art and War reveals the sheer diversity of artists' portrayals of this most devastating aspect of the human condition -- from the ""heroic"" paintings of Benjamin West and of John Singer Sargent to brutal and iconic works by artists from Goya to Picasso, and the equally oppositional work of Leon Golub, Nancy Spero and others who reacted with fury to the Vietnam War. Particular attention is paid to work produced in response to the First and Second World Wars and to more recent art and memorial work by artists as diverse as Barbara Kruger, Alfredo Jarr and Maya Lin. The book looks finally to the reactions of contemporary artists such as Langlands and Bell to the US invasion in 2001 of Afghanistan and the War in Iraq.

Art and War (Art and Series)

I.B.Tauris

This is a truly encyclopedic survey of artists' responses - both 'official' and personal - to 'the horrors of war'. "Art and War" reveals the sheer diversity of artists' portrayals of this most devastating aspect of the human condition - from the 'heroic' paintings of Benjamin West and John Singer Sargent to brutal and iconic works by artists from Goya to Picasso, and the equally oppositional work of Leon Golub, Nancy Spero and others who reacted with fury to the Vietnam War. Laura Brandon pays particular attention to work produced in response to World War I and World War II, as well as to more recent art and memorial work by artists as diverse as Barbara Kruger, Alfredo Jarr and Maya Lin. She looks finally to the reactions of contemporary artists such as Langlands and Bell to the US invasion in 2001 of Afghanistan and the 'War on Terror'.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brandon, Laura. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Brandon, Laura