Humanity Under Fire – War art by Will Dyson

The Shrine of Remembrance presents an exhibition to mark the centenary of when Australia’s first official war artist, Will Dyson, first began working on the Western Front.
The incisive political insight of Dyson’s cartoons, particularly the Kultur Cartoons on the rise of militarism, had gained him international acclaim. On his appointment as an official war artist, Dyson shifted the focus of his drawings from grand political narratives to individual soldiers and their hardships in combat. Dyson depicted the miserable conditions, loneliness and suffering and the wry, understated humour of the ordinary soldier.

The exhibition presents some of Dyson’s best known work, focusing on the limited edition lithographs made from his frontline sketches. Oil paintings on loan from the Australian War Memorial give further insight into the breadth of his art.