Henry Moore

Henry Moore. Tube Shelter Perspective. The Liverpool Street Extension. 1940-1941.

I really wasn't that interested in Henry Moore's sculptures, which I had to study in college, so was strangely put off by them. But one evening, I was watching the Culture Show on BBC 2 and it was all about art in the Second World War.

One artist that came up a lot was Henry Moore's drawings of air raid shelters, or in this case, one of many tube stations that was used as air raids, Liverpool Street.

Ever since seeing these images, Moore has become alot more interesting to me than before.

He has captured the cramped conditions that people had to cope with, with hardly any room to move and also has captured how dark and depressing these places would have been.

I really like how Moore has sketched the people. He hasn't used much detail but used shape more than anything. They appear almost ghostly and a shadow of their former selves.

The people look sad... which of course they had many reasons to be, but the artist has decided to capture this as they seem, but many artists draw and produce works that show the people in the war happy and ready to fight.

There is a sense of innocence and sadness which Moore has captured with the use of colour. The main colours used are black and shocks of white and yellow. The more one looks at this piece, you feel like you are being pulled into it, it is rather haunting.

Stockport's Air Raid Shelters

On the 5th of October, myself and a friend of mine went to the Air Raid Shelters in Stockport. I have always wanted to visit there as I am so interested in the Second World War. I visited when I was at school, (quite sometime ago!) and wanted to visit again.

My friend and I decided to go in whilst we had the afternoon off.

When we entered, the women told us that there was a class in at the beginning, where you go into a small room where the introduction is... I know a lot about the war, so we were asked to start in the main shelters and have the introduction at the end, which was no problem.

The second photograph shows you what you see as you enter the shelters. Long dark tunnels, only lit up with a gas lamp.

The atmosphere is strange. It is dark and eerie and full of history.

We were the only ones in the tunnels at that time and one couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive as one finds it hard to believe that hundreds of people at that time were sheltering in it whilst the Luftwaffe planes droned on above. It is so cold and damp, but one has to remember that that didn't matter as one had no choice if you wanted to be kept alive!

The tunnels carried on for miles, and some were boarded off for one reason or another but we walked for a very long time around them.

We entered where the warden slept, a little room, damp, dark, hardly any room whatsoever to move in and also went in the nurses station which still to this day had all the equipment in it that they used.

We also entered the toilets, some for the women and down another tunnel was for the men...

What shocked me was how many bunks were lined up on eachside of the tunnels. (Some were just benches if one was in there for a few hours.) There were about 3 beds ontop of the other, which were damp and extremly narrow... but all in all, it catered for what it was for.

Being there, just gave one an inkling of what life was like during the Blitz and how lucky we are not to have lived through it.

German Propaganda Art.

As people are aware, I am very interested in the Second World War and have been looking at different posters and books on German Propaganda.

This image, (which I hope does not offend anyone) is one of my favourites. It is a German soldier who is a member of The SS.

I love how it is drawn, painted etc and with my current brief I am working on, has been rather an inspiration to me.

I would like to put more of this kind of thing on my blog, but I don't know as I do not want to offend anyone.

My 1940s weekend.

No pics as yet- Im old fashioned and have to wait for them to be developed!

The weekend was up in Haworth, Yorkshire on the 15th of May. I adore the 40s and this was a chance for me to get up close and personal to it- which lets face it, we're never going to get it back.

I dressed up, as I have a large interest in costume and I would say that 50% of the people were dressed up too.

There was a fantastic atmosphere there, people were cheerful and friendly. There was suposed to be air raids but that didnt happen as there was too many people to get in it!

The interesting thing I found was all the soldiers, pilots there too. I found it rather strange that there was an asian national socialist there!

Each to their own!

More to come -

Prisoner of War art

As alot of people know, that I have a very big interest in the WWII. As i have mentioned in a previos post, I visited the Prispner of War exhibition in Manchester and it left something in me...
In the exhibition, there was plenty of illustrations by the P.O.Ws which are so interesting. Through all that misery, they still managed to spend time drawing and sketching what they saw.
Here is one that I found on the internet that I really like.
Done on notepaper, any paper they could get their hands on, and a sketched image of people in Solitary... I am interested in this art and am going to pursue further in my personal work.

BLITZ STREET

Last night, I watched a program that was really interesting. I find the Second World War fascinating- so this was right up my street.

Basically there was a 1940s street that was built purposely for the show and there the presenter and team blew the street up with German bombs and with modern technology saw the impact of the damage that happened.

It was so interesting but yet rather upsetting and a sense of devastation that had occurred during those times.

ATS

I was recently shown the war time artist Abram Games by my tutor.
I instantly fell in love with his work- this one being my favourite.
I used this image for my Semiotics presentation not long ago. It made me look at this image differently- more up close.
This was done for English propaganda- for women to join the ATS.
Even hough it was such a bad time, this image made women think that they could still look and feel glamorous, as the woman looks in the picture.