Author: Roodhouse, Simon

Publication Year:

Media Type: Periodical (article)

Summary:

Abstract:

In the United Kingdom, artists have engaged in one form or another with the industrial world since the seventeenth century, particularly in coal mining. Ever-increasing involvement occurred throughout the industrial revolution and continued through World Wars I and II. There are examples of this interaction in art collections around the world. With a little investigation it is apparent, however, that the artist was usually commissioned by the industrialist to produce a specific image. Their relationship was to all intents and purposes a business transaction that led only on occasion to longer-term relationships.

This form of engagement - the commissioning of artists for specific purposes - was not restricted to industrialists. Institutions such as the British Ministry of Defence commissioned artists such as Leslie Cole, Terence Cuneo, Laura Knight, and Henry Moore to portray the war effort at home during World War II. Stanley Spencer's paintings of ship building on the Clyde, housed within the Imperial War Museum, are an excellent example of this approach. In the similar state interventions occurred, the best-known of which is the Federal Art Project, established during the depression to give artists employment.

However, it is worth noting that there is little evidence of a progressive and growing relationship between the artistic and industrial worlds after World War II. It seems that artists have continued to develop their practice with little reference to industry and that industry's role has been relegated to that of financial sponsor for events and exhibitions rather than individual artists.

Consequently, a meaningful and beneficial engagement between the production of art and industrial activity has not been a significant part of artistic activity in the last twenty years, nor has industry expanded its involvement in the world.

Although industry and artists have been involved with each other since the seventeenth century, this discussion is limited to the last twenty years. This is in part because of my work in establishing the Artist in Industry schemes as means of addressing the seemingly ever-widening gap between the needs of industry and those of artists. (p. 227-8)

CONTENTS
The role of industry.
The role of the artist.
Transnational characteristics.
Conclusion.
Notes.
Bibliography.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: International