With the new season now getting under way, some exhibitors at the 20/21 British Art Fair are taking a potted selection of their forthcoming shows to the fair which opens on September 10.
One dealer, Liss Fine Art, is also holding a large concurrent exhibition devoted to The Great War: As Recorded through the Fine and Popular Arts. The non-selling exhibition runs from September 5 to October 2 at Morley College's Morley Gallery at 61 Westminster Bridge Road, London, near to the Imperial War Museum.
"Images of the First and Second World Wars have always been a core interest of LFA - after our Damn the War exhibition (2006) we started working on the idea of commemorating the First World War in 2014," says Paul Liss, who has put together the show with his partner Sacha Llewellyn.
"Good images of the First World War, outside the collection of the IWM, are rare - so this was not a project to start putting together late in the day. As our material grew in scope and size we decided that just having a commercial show would be a missed opportunity.
"We had previously organised a conference on murals at Morley College and given its proximity to the IWM it seemed a great tie-in, further assisted by the fact that the IWM have created a wide series of First World War Centenary initiatives to which we have been able to contribute."
Scholarly Catalogue
The pair have also edited a substantial scholarly catalogue on the show, dedicated to the late art dealer Neil Wilson, which is worth a look in itself. It is priced at £25 and 100% of the sale proceeds will be split between two charities: The Red Cross and Morley College.
In addition to the 204 items featured in the catalogue there will be over 300 items of First World War memorabilia and Trench Art from the collection of David and Judith Cohen.
The exhibition, say Paul and Sacha in the foreword to the catalogue, seeks to present "a view of the First World War through a multifarious record of two- and three-dimensional works of art: paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, reliefs, posters, postcards, silhouettes and ceramics".
Well-known war artists such as Henry Tonks, Eric Kennington, C.R.W. Nevinson, Colin Gill, Spencer Pryse and Muirhead Bone are all represented and there is a bias towards British art, although works from other participating nations are included.
The exhibition will also focus on how the First World War transformed the role and image of women for the duration of the conflict at least.
• Liss Fine Art will also stage a selling show of some 500 First World War works during Armistice Week at The Strand Gallery, where prices range from £30 to over £100,000.
