Latest news with #EricRavilious
BBC News
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Painting of train window view is voted best UK railway art
A piece of art depicting the Wiltshire countryside through a train window has been voted as the public's favourite UK railway-themed Landscape was painted by Eric Ravilious in the 1940s, showing the Westbury White Horse through a third-class train carriage. His wife Tirzah Garwood made the collage section of the piece, using sections of different watercolours her husband had painted while travelling on artwork beat 19 others, including the works of JMW Turner and David Shepherd, in a global Railway 200 poll held to mark two centuries of the modern railway. The winner was announced earlier, on the anniversary of the birth of the railway pioneer George Stephenson. Mr Ravilious' granddaughter Ella Ravilious said she was "thrilled" her grandfather's work had won."He was quite a picky artist," she said. "He would tear up lots of his watercolours that he wasn't happy with."She said it's "fitting" the piece is now marking 200 years of the railway because it is a composite picture of elements from several different railway lines."I'm thrilled that interest in Eric's work has sustained and that he is becoming even more popular," Ms Ravilious added. Heritage Minister Baroness Twycross said the artwork was a worthy victor."This evocative watercolour invites us all to experience a railway journey through an artist's eye, capturing a uniquely British perspective that resonates today. "Art offers us a powerful way to engage with our past and this selection of artworks tell the unique story of Britain's relationship with railways over 200 years."The 20 most popular paintings are available to view on the Art UK website until the end of the year."I encourage everyone to explore these magnificent works and find inspiration from our shared cultural heritage," Baroness Twycross added.
The Guardian
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
War Paint – Women at War review – female conflict artists get their moment in the spotlight
Margy Kinmonth's latest feature documentary represents the third in a trilogy of films about artists and war, following Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War, which focused on the second world war artist of the title, and the more first world war-skewed War Art with Eddie Redmayne, which showed on ITV. This time the focus is on female artists and war – as the title suggests with its cringe-inducing pun on a slang term for makeup. It's a perfectly valid and potentially fruitful subject, but the analysis here is often frustratingly superficial. Kinmonth puts herself front and centre as the onscreen interviewer and narrator, so one has to blame her directly for the daftness of some her questions. For instance, she asks sculptor Rachel Whiteread: 'I'm wondering, is there a difference in the perception of female artists to men, and what do women see that men don't?' Whiteread politely demurs to tackle that one. 'I think that's an incredibly difficult thing to answer,' she replies. 'I don't think you really can make that distinction.' Fortunately the film itself doesn't seem to be reaching for a similarly essentialist formula to answer that question. Instead we get a serviceable if somewhat disjointed series of profiles of various female artists addressing war, from state-appointed ones such as Dame Laura Knight, who painted the second world war, Falkland war artist Linda Kitson, and American architect-artist Maya Lin, who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. Lin recounts how one official weirdly questioned whether her choice of polished black granite was perhaps 'too feminine'. Art world grande dames such as Maggi Hambling and Marcelle Hanselaar are paid due tribute, alongside celebrations of those whose work nearly slipped into obscurity. That goes for photographer Lee Miller (to a certain extent), as well as avant garde woodcarver and painter Rachel Reckitt, and prisoners of war interred in the Changi prison camp in Singapore by the Japanese, who made quilt squares to express themselves. Among the most interesting subjects are the artists currently working in active war zones, such as Ukrainian Zhanna Kadyrova whose innovative installations play with surface and found objects, and Sudanese graffiti artist Assil Diab who paints murals of the many dead in the 'forgotten' war. Some may feel irked that these up-and-coming artists aren't given more airtime instead of the established names, but that probably would have lessened the doc's export value to international broadcasters, alas. War Paint – Women at War is in UK and Irish cinemas from 28 March.
