Art and the Spanish Civil War at the Imperial War Museum

Art works, documents and memorabilia relating to the Spanish Civil War go on show at the Imperial War Museum in London to mark the 65th anniversary of the arrival in Spain of the International Brigades, a force made up of volunteers from France, Germany, Italy, the US and the UK. Part of the exhibition, entitled “The Spanish Civil War: dreams and nightmares” (20 October to 28 April 2002), will try to relate the personal experiences of soldiers and civilians caught up in the war; it includes letters by George Orwell and journalistic despatches by Ernest Hemingway. But another major component explores the war’s impact on artists. To this end, a selection of art works has been included by many of the wide range of painters, sculptors and photographers who responded to the war in their work, including Joan Miró, Henry Moore, René Magritte, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Alexander Calder, Edward Burra, Robert Capa and Robert Motherwell.