The Battle of Britain

The Passage to the Control-room at South West Regional Headquarters, Bristol

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Catalogue number
  • Art.IWM ART LD 170
Display status
IWM London
Production date
1940
Subject period
Materials
  • medium: oil
  • support: panel
Dimensions
  • Support: Height 762 mm
  • Support: Width 508 mm
  • Frame: Height 890 mm
  • frame: Width 640 mm
  • frame: Depth 70 mm
  • frame: depth (maximum) 80 mm
Alternative Names
  • object category: painting
Creator
Category
art

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Object description

image: A corridor lit by electric light, with numbers and symbols marking the walls and floor.

Label

Piper was commissioned in April 1940 to undertake ' a series of pictures of Air Raid Precaution control rooms' He was taken in great secrecy to see the ARP headquarters in Bristol. The strange lighting, graphics and colours created a modernist, almost brutal space which bore some affinity to the theatrical sets Piper had been designing before the war. Piper increases their abstract qualities by breaking down perspective but retains an eye for their functional importance. The paintings were exhibited at the National Gallery in July 1940 in an exhibition of British War Artists.

 

This claustrophobic space is emphasised with harsh artificial lighting. The architecture is cold and clinical, detached from the disorder of warfare. John Piper was an official war artist during the Second World War. Pre-war he made abstract compositions, but returned to representation, making works inspired by architecture and landscape. He also started writing for the Architectural Review. This was one of his first war art commissions but he did not find the subject particularly engaging, preferring to paint the more picturesque ruins of historic buildings.

History note

War Artists Advisory Committee commission JOHN PIPER WAS SPECIALLY EMPLOYED FROM 1940 – 1942 AND IN 1944 BY THE WAR ARTISTS ADVISORY COMMITTEE (WAAC) OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT’S MINISTRY OF INFORMATION. DURING THIS PERIOD HE PRODUCED FORTY-TWO WORKS OF ART FOR THE WAAC (THE LD-PREFIX REFERS). IN 1946 THESE WORKS WERE ALLOCATED TO VARIOUS MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES. FOUR WATERCOLOURS AND TWO OILS, INCLUDING LD 170, WERE ALLOCATED TO THE COLLECTION OF THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM. REFERENCE: SECOND WORLD WAR, WAR ARTISTS ARCHIVE, FILE REF ART/WA2/03/080 (GP/55/51) (CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE ARTIST) WAAC AGENDA AND MINUTES 1940 FILE REF. ART/WA2/04/007

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