Book description
For as long as Australians have been serving in wars, the victories and
losses, battles and faces have been recorded by artists. What is it like
to be an artist in war? How does the experience of war change artists
and how, in turn, has their work changed Australians' view of
themselves, their country and their involvement in conflict?
Award-winning journalist Scott Bevan put these questions to Australian
artists who have recorded, been affected by and responded to theatres of
war, including Sir William Dargie, Nora Heysen, Ray Parkin, Bruce
Fletcher, Rick Amor, Ray Beattie, Wendy Sharpe and Peter Churcher. Their
stories are fascinating, painting a vivid picture of the artists'
experience of depicting conflict: the hope and tragedy, inspiration and
frustration, humanity and beauty that can be found amid the death and
destruction of war. Staining the paper with their own sweat, and drawing
with whatever materials they had to hand in hostile and dangerous
environments, the artists risked their lives to create their art. They
were compelled to record what they were seeing, from Alan Moore's bleak
sketches of the horror of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, to Ray
Parkin's drawings of the tropical beauty that lay just beyond the barbed
wire of the Japanese prisoner-of-war camp he was interned in, to Rick
Amor's imposing and thought-provoking oil paintings of the destruction
in East Timor in 1999. These artists have shaped how we see war,
immortalising soldiers and battles. From World War II to Vietnam and the
war against terrorism, the war artist has opened our eyes and
perceptions to historic events that might otherwise have been censored,
distorted or forgotten. In the process they have created some
extraordinary art à Â- beautiful, harrowing, mesmerising and character
defining. Scott Bevan is an award-winning journalist and author. Over
the past two decades, he has reported for news and current affairs
television, and worked as a radio broadcaster, feature writer and arts
reviewer. He has also written fiction and non-fiction works. He has also
contributed articles to magazines and newspapers, including writing
about the arts for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian. While
reporting on the East Timor crisis for the Nine Networkà  s A Current
Affair in 1999, Scott met war artist Wendy Sharpe. Observing her at work
inspired him to write Battle Lines.
