Things to Come: Eric Kennington's War God (No. 33)

Description

First shown in the Artists against Fascism and War exhibition in 1935, War God was made in a period preoccupied with fears and premonitions of war, which were often projected onto representations of male bodies or visible in anxious images of masculinity.

Delving into the work of Eric Kennington, Sue Malvern describes how War God began as an alternative war memorial, but is also a self-reflective piece that meditates on masculinity and aggression, a modern and deeply ambivalent priapic hero.

This essay was written to accompany the exhibition Eric Kennington: 'The War God' and other works (26 May – 26 August 2001, the Upper Sculpture Study Gallery, Leeds Art Gallery).