THE REAL AND THE ROMANTIC: ENGLISH ART BETWEEN TWO WORLD WARS A TIMES BEST ART BOOK OF 2022

The Times and Sunday Times Art Book of the Year Superb Spalding is a lucid and revealing guide who wears her scholarship lightly Sunday Times Spalding s prose is as clear as a Ravilious greenhouse her thoughts as orderly as a Ben Nicholson white relief The Times A fresh look at a period of English art that has surged in interest and popularity in recent years authored by one of Britain s leading art historians and critics The 21st century has seen a surge of interest in English art of the interwar years Women artists such as Winifred Knights Frances Hodgkins and Evelyn Dunbar have come to the fore while familiar names Paul Nash Eric Ravilious and Stanley Spencer have reached new audiences High profile exhibitions have attracted recordbreaking visitor numbers and challenged received opinion In The Real and the Romantic Frances Spalding one of Britain s leading art historians and critics takes a fresh and timely look at this rich period in English art The devastation of the First World War left the art world decentred and directionless This book is about its recovery Spalding explores how exciting new ideas co existed with a desire for continuity and a renewed interest in the past We see the challenge to English artists represented by Cézann