Artis et Belli: The Great War and its Art

Dr. Rafael Chacón examines the ways in which World War I—the first time in which modern nation states used artistic propaganda as a weapon of war—proved to be a pivotal moment for the visual arts of the western world. The Great War also served as the backdrop for the clash of artistic ideologies, as it disrupted the radical image-making of the avant-garde and afforded academic realism one last chance in its official commemorative monuments. Chacón is a professor of Art History and Criticism at the University of Montana in Missoula and curator of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture’s World War I exhibit, Over There! Montanans in the Great War.