Winston Churchill in British Art, 1900 to the Present Day: The Titan With Many Faces

Description

Churchill is today remembered as a great leader, a war hero, a literary heavyweight and a renowned wit. This incarnation of Churchill is the latest in a long-evolving identity, which at various times has sustained his power, enhanced his popularity and enabled him to personify aspects of British national identity. Indeed Churchill was more aware than most of the performative power of his public life. He lived in an age of the illustrated mass-produced newspaper, with its cartoons and 'Kodak-snappers'. He was well-known for his readiness to appear in uniform for photo opportunities during the Second World War and he not only wrote about the art of political caricature, but collected cartoons of himself, his allies and opponents. In this heavily-illustrated book, Jonathan Black considers the changing image of Churchill in visual art, from cartoons and paintings to photographs and sculptures. He asks how and why his image developed right up to the present day and examines the extent to which Churchill was complicit in its production.

Jonathan Black is a Senior Research Fellow in History of Art at Kingston University, UK. A Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, he became interested in the image of Churchill when studying the sculptor Ivor Roberts-Jones, who was responsible for the iconic statue of Churchill in Parliament Square.

Jonathan Black is an art historian, and reading him is rather like visiting a major exhibition in the company of its curator. No such collection as this, embracing the work of painters, sculptors, photographers, and cartoonists, has ever been assembled before ... Enjoyable though it is to browse through the pictures, the substance of the book lies in the text, which is both scholarly and original. * Journal of Modern History * Full credit to Jonathan Black for spotting a significant gap in the exhaustive, indeed excessive, literature on Winston Churchill: his changing image in art. This book admirably qualifies as "iconography" not only as art historians mean it ... but also as a scholarly yet page-turning study of a veritable twentieth-century icon ... I give Jonathan Black a V for Victory sign. * The Tablet * [A] brisk and enjoyable biography through images. * London Review of Books * Unreservedly recommended, not only to librarians, but as a fine present for a Churchill buff, or for that matter anyone interested in the perception of 'The Greatest Briton of All Time'. * Cercles * This well-written, well-researched and beautifully produced book covers every conceivable angle in the relationship between Winston Churchill and Art, often in surprising and inspiring ways. I didn't think there was anything new to be said about Churchill, but Jonathan Black has certainly managed it. * Andrew Roberts, Visiting Professor, King's College London, UK * The lure of the enigmatic and ever charismatic Winston Churchill, as seen through the eyes of Britain's leading artists throughout the nation's most turbulent century, and expertly collated and analysed here by Jonathan Black, makes this long-overdue study irresistible. * Michael J. K. Walsh, Associate Professor of Art, Design & Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore * In this definitive study Jonathan Black examines the myriad representations made of Sir Winston Churchill over the course of the 20th century and into our own era. Black cogently analyses this evolving imagery in relation to Churchill's tumultuous political career and its aftermath, from his period as First Lord of the Admiralty during World War One to the struggle to define the 'myth' of Churchill following his death in 1965. This lavishly illustrated book is a wonderful and timely addition to the vast literature on the life and legacy of Winston Churchill. * Mark Antliff, Mary Grace Wilson Professor of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Duke University, USA *