Description
Publication 25 October 2025.
Pre-orders are now being taken and orders will be despatched upon publication.
Artist as Witness: The Impact of War explores the importance of the artist as eyewitness, providing insights not only into warfare, but also the impact of war on those involved and the communities
affected. It focuses on the First and Second World Wars together with the war in Ukraine.
Evocative works by both well-known artists (including Paul Nash, Laura Knight, Evelyn Dunbar and Graham Sutherland) and lesser known (Kaff Gerrard and Hilda Jillard) encompass themes of war preparations, food production, under attack, theatres of war, the costs of war, and crimes against humanity. This final section features work by artists who witnessed the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and by Edith Hofmann, a survivor of the Holocaust. Work by artists who recorded the Nuremberg Trials are also included.
George Butler’s powerful drawings made in situ in Ukraine remind us of the power of the artist as witness to the devastating impact of war on communities: the shattering of lives, forced migration, displacement together with the need for rebuilding, peace and reconciliation.
Artist as Witness accompanies an exhibition curated by the author at Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth (25 October 2025 – 8 March 2026)
Author biography
Dr Gill Clarke is a writer, curator and former academic. She has published widely on twentieth-century British Art; her books include: Evelyn Dunbar: War and Country; Randolph Schwabe: A Life in Art; Conflicting Views: Pacifist Artists. She has also curated exhibitions at Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth, Burgh House & Hampstead Museum, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester and St Barbe Museum & Art Gallery, Lymington, where she co-authored with Steve Marshall Unsettling Landscapes: The Art of the Eerie, Parallel Lives: Eight Women Artists and, most recently The Life of the Fields.
Duncan Walker is the curator of the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth. Responsible for its internationally renowned eclectic collection, which ranges from Japanese ceramics and African
spears to Victorian oil paintings and Napoleon Bonaparte’s wine cooler, he also helps produce the museum’s temporary exhibition programme.
George Butler is an award-winning artist whose drawings are made in situ in war zones, refugee camps and disaster areas worldwide. His work has been published widely, from The Times to The New York Times, and is also held in the V&A. His book Ukraine Remember Also Me, a collection of powerful images and testimonies from the conflict was published in 2024 by Walker Books Ltd.
Andy Martin was news editor of the Bournemouth Echo (1997–2014) and its editor and head of news (2014–19). He now works for Newsquest as an associate editor and has been a media simulation and training contractor in the military and defence sector since 2012. He is a member of the management committee of the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum and BCP Council portfolio holder for culture.
