GCSE Citizenship
Teachers’Resource
Restless Times: Exploring British
community and identity through
art from 1914 to 1945
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
GCSE Citizenship Teachers’ Resource
Restless Times: Exploring British community
and identity through art from 1914 to 1945
This resource has been created for teachers in response to an
exhibition which is part of the Great British Art Debate. The aim
of the pack is to provide a unit of work across 5 lessons, with
enough ideas and material to cover a longer period if necessary.
As part of the Great British Art Debate and the exhibition Restless
Times: Art in Britain 1914-1945, Museums Sheffield worked with
young people from Firth Park Community Arts College in Sheffield
to create a film exploring the idea of ‘Britishness’. This film, along
with a selection of artworks from the exhibition, is a fantastic
resource to explore units from the Citizenship curriculum
particularly when investigating what nationhood means and
how it shapes our identity.
Between 1914 and 1945 Britain was very unsettled with Two World Wars. The inter-war
period saw the Great Depression, a period of protest with events such as the Jarrow
Marches and various strikes. Emotions ran high and people formed groups with a collective
identity in order to give weight to their cause. During wartime people comforted each other,
as friends and family members were killed and their homes came under threat from
bombing. The Blitz spirit prevailed as communities pulled together in such difficult times.
The armed forces fought for their country, demonstrating powerful teamwork and patriotism.
Soldiers were celebrated as heroes but were left with a huge range of mental and physical
disabilities. How did this shape their own identity and did it affect how other people saw
them? Many women were employed for the first time, or were doing jobs they’d never done
before, children were evacuated and being raised by strangers. How were identities shaped
under these conditions? Are there any parallels with life in Britain today? Did this period
make us who we are?
Artists documented this period vividly through both realistic and more surreal works.
This resource uses some of these artworks to support the sessions and to encourage
discussion on the use of art as a resource. These works are available to download
along with this pack and the film in order to support the teaching of this unit.
This resource has been planned in consultation with Rachel Smith, Citizenship teacher
at Firth Park Community Arts College, Sheffield.
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
Aims
• To explore identity, community and nationhood today using British Art from
1914 to 1945 as a resource.
• To help students understand the nature of Britain and how it shapes their
personal identity.
More information about the Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
Vision
To inspire, motivate and entertain the widest possible audience by giving them
unprecedented access to the partners’ outstanding collections of British Art and
to engage them with issues of nationhood and identity in the lead up to the
London Olympics in 2012.
The Great British Art Debate is a partnership between Tate, Tyne & Wear Museums,
Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service and Museums Sheffield, supported by the
Heritage Lottery Fund and by the Renaissance - museums for changing lives programme.
The aims are;
• To give people unprecedented access to outstanding collections of British Art
• To help people engage with these collections to explore how British Art relates
to their lives today
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
Contents
1. What is Britishness?
Learning objective:
To reflect on and discuss what it means to be British and begin
to express these opinions.
2. Communities in war
Learning objective:
To examine through art how war affects individuals and communities.
3. Modern community
Learning objective:
To explore the variety of modern communities and the extent to which
individuals can be a part of them.
4. Identity and values
Learning objective:
To discuss and examine the theme of identity and to attempt to define it.
5. What Makes Britain what it is today?
Learning objective:
To recognise the diversity of the population of Britain and to appreciate
the extent to which we are dependent on others.
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
Resources –
see appendix for film, artworks,
worksheets and further information
Lesson 1
Film
Lesson 2
• British Pathé film www.britishpathe.com
• A Kurd, Miza Mohammed, a Watchman by Edward Bawden
• Mahommed Nur Bakheit, Easter Arab Corps, Omdurman
by Edward Bawden
• Making Soldiers: In the Trenches from The Great War:
Britain’s Efforts and Ideals by Eric Kennington
• Bombed Women and Searchlights by Clive Branson
• Shadowy Shelter by Henry Moore
• Worksheet for lesson 2
Lesson 3
• Film
• Examples of Facebook groups
Lesson 4
• Unemployed Man by Percy Horton
• Two Females by Ceri Richards
• The Mutilated by Jankel Adler
• Portrait of Edith Sitwell by Wyndham Lewis
• internet images of Cheryl Cole, Wayne Rooney and Amir Khan
(or alternative currently famous people)
Lesson 5
• World map
• Fact sheet
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
1. What is Britishness?
Introduction
Watch the film as an opener and discuss how artwork is going to be used to
explore what being British means and about identity.
Activities
Group work
Discuss and list the characteristics of ‘Britishness’.
Think about what are the perceived national characteristics.
Class work
Collect ideas and highlight which of these can be agreed on as being British.
How do things become British? Is there such a thing as ‘British’? Is it important? Why?
Group work
Discuss and create a group definition of ‘Britishness’, about a paragraph.
Back up your points with reasons and examples. Write to persuade your
audience that you have a good definition of what it means to be ‘British’!
Class work
Each group in turns shares their definition giving other groups the right to reply.
Discuss the positives and negatives of each group’s definition.
Conclusion
Group work and individual work
Redraft the original definition in light of the discussions and record definitions individually.
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
2. Communities in War
Introduction
Show The Twentieth Century by C R W Nevinson as a lesson starter and discussion piece.
What is this work all about? What are the artist’s views on war? Why do you think he felt
that way? Look carefully at the groups of people in the picture. Who are they?
Activities
Group work
Brainstorm everything you know about British people and their communities during
WW1 and WW2. What happen to the lives of British people? Did the war change
day to day lives?
Class work
Collect ideas from brainstorms. Watch a Pathé film showing everyday life during war time.
Is there anything else that can be added to the brainstorm list?
www.britishpathe.com
Discuss what kinds of feelings these people had. Were they all negative? Show or give out
copies of A Kurd, Miza Mohammed, a Watchman and Mahommed Nur Bakheit, Easter
Arab Corps, Omduman both by Edward Bawden, Making Soldiers: In the Trenches by Eric
Kennington and Bombed Women and Searchlights by Clive Branson. What do these works
tell us about communities during wartime? Aim for responses such as the involvement of
people from different communities, the role of women, neighbour communities and how
people pulled together.
Individual work
Examine the 4 paintings and complete the character worksheet.
Class work
Discuss the characters and any thoughts about them. Teacher to give out any missing
information about each of the works. Look at Henry Moore’s Shadowy Shelter.
What can this work tell us about communities in wartime?
Conclusion
Individual work
Write down anything new you have learnt about people and communities in wartime.
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
3. Modern Community
Introduction
Show the film again and take note of the people. All the people in this film are part of
one community, a school community. Is it possible to belong to more than one community?
Collect a list of other communities they might belong to.
Activities
Individual work
List all the communities that you belong to. Discuss the benefits of being part of a community.
Class work
Discuss the different communities of people in the class and the benefits of belonging to
them. How does being in a community feel? Discuss the feeling of being together. Does
Britain ever feel like a community? Think about times when we feel a sense of unity.
Expect answers related to sporting events such as the World Cup or Olympics. What kinds
of things do we do to show we are part of this national community? Does being part of this
national community make us feel more ‘British’? Looking at football, if we support England
does that make us feel more British? What if we support Scotland, Northern Ireland or
Wales, would we still feel British? Looking at the Olympics would we cheer on a runner in
the Great British team? What if the runner was from Scotland? Look at how we can belong
to small communities such as a local club or a class at school, but we can belong to larger
communities too. Refer back to the last lesson and that sense of belonging, shared
experiences and community during wartime.
Group work
Discuss shared experiences. Examples could be:
• Where were you when...?
• What children’s programmes did you watch when you were in primary school?
• What Facebook groups do you belong to?
• What do you like to do after school?
Class work
Collect some of the experiences and note how these experiences got people talking to
each other. This is how communities can develop when people have shared interests and
experiences, whether these experiences are positive, as in enjoying a particular sport, or
negative, as in sharing a bomb shelter during a war.
Conclusion
Individual work
Answer the following questions.
• Can people belong to more than one community? Explain your answer.
• Why is there overlap between communities?
• What are the positives of belonging to a community?
• What are the negatives?
• If you could set up your own Facebook group to start a new community,
• what would it be called and why?
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
4. Identity and Values
Introduction
Show Percy Horton’s Unemployed Man. Share the title and give a little information about
the date. In 1929 just 11 years after the First World War Britain was in a period of recession.
Unemployment levels were really high as the American Stock Market Crash in 1929 led to a
world-wide depression. Some people were not so hard-hit but for many in Britain it was a
time of daily struggle. Many industries were in decline and there was a massive rise in
unemployment. No welfare state meant that if you didn’t have a job, you had no support
and so many people were destitute.
Activities
Individual work
Answer the questions.
• Describe the man in the picture. How do you think he feels?
• Why was/is it a big deal to be unemployed? (especially as a man in those days)
• How do you think other people would see this man?
• How would he have liked to have been portrayed?
Class work
Discuss answers to the above.
• What can we say about the man’s identity?
• What can’t we say from the portrait?
• How much of our identity is bound up in what we do?
• What we believe?
• What we look like?
Group work
Select 3 internet images of currently ‘well known’ people such as Cheryl Cole, Wayne
Rooney and Amir Khan. Discuss each of the images and brainstorm words and phrases
to describe each person’s identity.
Class work
Look at each group’s results. Is appearance important? How much does it matter?
What if we look different? Show the class the works, Two Females by Ceri Richards,
The Mutilated by Jankel Adler and Portrait of Edith Sitwell by Wyndham Lewis and just
give the artist names and work titles. These are people we don’t recognise and Two
Females is very abstract.
Group work
Think about each character in the artworks. Imagine what each person values and
what their priorities are.
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
Class work
Discuss the values and priorities given to each of the people in the works. Give the students
information about the works (see appendix). Edith Sitwell was quite a character. Did this
come across in the group activity? What was the response to The Mutilated? Does it match
the thoughts of the artist who was admiring the ‘Blitz spirit’ through the work? Note that we
can so easily misjudge someone by taking them at face value. Can we really get an idea of
a person’s values and priorities just using what a he or she looks like?
Group work
Consider these 2 statements.
• ‘how we behave is more important than what we look like’.
• ‘what we look like is what matters most’
Choose which one you agree with more. Give reasons for your group’s answer.
Conclusion
Individual work
What’s your identity? Produce a paragraph entitled ‘My Identity’. Don’t just describe your
appearance (although you may include it if you consider it to be an important part of who
you are). Think about beliefs, values, background, important activities, communities.
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
5. What makes Britain what it is today?
Introduction
Brainstorm responses to the question ‘What makes Britain what it is today?’
Expect answers such as types of foods, shops, technologies, opportunities.
Activities
Class work
Collect up responses to the question.
Explore the responses and map out where all of the things in the list come from. For
example, fish and chips is only available because of the potato which originated in a region
of southern Peru. It provided the principal energy source for the Inca Empire. As travel
spread so did the potato and it became a popular food across Europe. Sir Francis Drake
introduced potatoes into England in 1580. Mass cultivation and trade of tea was begun by
the Chinese. Most of our technology is only possible because of development in places such
as Japan and China. Many of our clothes are made in places like India. Coffee, chocolate,
many fruits and vegetables are only available to us because we import them. Opportunity in
Britain often allows us to have holidays in other parts of the world. While discussing this you
could place points on a world map to show how dependant we are on other countries.
Move on to looking at responses that refer to the people of Britain.
Group work
What is a British identity? In groups discuss and write a group answer to the question.
Ask each group to feedback. Give out fact sheets and see if any of the groups would like
to change their answer.
Class work
Discuss answers to the question. Go through the fact sheet. Are there any surprises? Discuss
attitudes towards immigration today. Discuss the statement ‘immigration benefits a country’.
Do the students agree or disagree?
Conclusion
Individual work
Write a paragraph to answer the following questions.
• What is Britishness?
• Britishness today very different to Britishness in the past?
• How has Britain shaped your identity?
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
Appendix
Resource for Lesson 1
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeoiG9wZcb0
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
Art Work for Lesson 2
CRW Nevinson The Twentieth Century, 1932 to 1935
©Laing Art Gallery, Tyne and Wear Museums
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
Art Works for Lesson 2
Clive Branson Bombed Women and Searchlights, 1940.
Collection Tate, London
©Rosa Branson, 2010
Edward Bawden - Mahommed Nur Bakheit,
Eastern Arab Corps, Omdurman, c1941
©Laing Art Gallery, Tyne and Wear Museums
Eric Kennington
Making Soldiers: In the Trenches c 1917
Lithograph on paper
TATE
Edward Bawden - A Kurd, Miza Mohammed, a
Watchman, 1940-44
©Laing Art Gallery, Tyne and Wear Museums
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
Art Work for Lesson 2
Henry Moore
Shadowy Shelter, 1940.
Collection Museums Sheffield ©reproduced by
permission of the Henry Moore Foundation. DACS, 2010
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
Worksheet for lesson 2
Using war art to explore community
Examine the four pictures and complete each of the sections below.
In thought bubbles put the following statements.
• 2 things I notice are…
• 2 things I’d like to know are…
• 2 questions I’d like to ask…
• I wonder…
• I think the person in the picture might be thinking…
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
Resource for Lesson 3
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeoiG9wZcb0
www.facebook.com/Museums.Sheffield
www.facebook.com/gbartdebate.
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
Art Works for Lesson 4
Jankel Adler
The Mutilated 1942–3
Oil on canvas
TATE
Ceri Richards
Two Females 1937–8
Painted Wood, strip brass and brass ornaments
TATE
Wyndham Lewis
Portrait of Edith Sitwell
Edith Sitwell 1923–35
Oil on canvas
TATE
Percy Horton 1897–1970
Unemployed man, c 1929
Oil on canvas
Museums Sheffield
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
Fact Sheet for lesson 5
Ethnicity and identity
Since the days of Britons and Picts in the Iron Age people from overseas have settled in
Britain, maybe to escape political or religious persecution or in search of better economic
opportunities and more fertile land. At the same time people from Britain have migrated
to and settled in other parts of the world.
From the very early days of Roman, Saxon, Viking then Norman invasions there has been
a long history of migration to and from Britain. For example, large numbers of Jewish
refugees arrived in Britain to escape persecution towards the end of the 19th century and
in the 1930 and 1940s; immigration from the West Indies and Indian sub-continent was
encouraged to cover labour shortages in the 1950s and 1960s; more recently people have
emigrated from African countries and Eastern Europe to escape violence and persecution.
These people have also filled labour shortages and have added to the mix of cultures and
diversity in Britain.
By 2007 the majority of people in many non-White ethnic groups living in Britain described
their national identity as British, English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh.
The UK population: by ethnic group,
April 2001
United
Kingdom
Total
population
count
%
White
54153898
92.1
n/a
Mixed
677117
1.2
14.6
Asian or
Asian British
Indian
Pakistani
bangladeshi
Other Asian
1053411
747285
283063
247664
1.8
1.3
0.5
0.4
22.7
16.1
6.1
5.3
Black or
Black British
Caribbean
Black African
Black Other
565876
485277
97585
1.0
0.8
0.2
12.2
10.5
2.1
Chinese
247403
0.4
5.3
Other
230615
0.4
5.0
4635296
7.0
100
58789194
100
n/a
All minority ethnic
population
All population
Source: Census, April 2001, Office for National Statistics
Minority
ethnic
population %
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
Proportion* of people
who feel British, 2007
Great Britain
%
White British
White Irish
Other White
Mixed
Indian
Pakistani
Bangladeshi
Other Asian
Black Caribbean
Black African
Other Black
Chinese
Other ethnic group
All
99
26
46
87
69
80
78
53
85
56
72
49
36
93
* People aged 16 and over.
Source: Annual Population Survey,
Office for National Statistics.
Reasons why people migrate
United Kingdom (thousands)
To Britain
2007
From
Britain
Balance
Definite job
Looking for work
Accompany/join*
Formal study
No reason stated
Other
172
71
85
149
35
65
100
73
43
15
60
49
72
-2
42
134
-25
16
All reasons
577
340
237
* Includes partners, family members and friends.
Source: Office for National Statistics
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
Further information about the work
in order of use
CRW Nevinson 1889-1946
Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson was a follower of the Italian Futurist art movement.
His Futurist paintings celebrated technology and all things exciting in the machine age.
When he was sent to France during the First World War he saw the destruction and violence
this technology caused. Although he continued to paint in a Futuristic fashion for a while, it
was no longer a celebration but an expression of bleakness and anger as he aimed to paint
a realistic view of events.
This painting was created in response to the spread of Fascism in Europe in the 1930s.
The figure that dominates the centre of the picture was based on Auguste Rodin’s sculpture
The Thinker. He represents a civilised society which is threatened by the bayonets, guns and
crowds below.
Edward Bawden 1903-1989
During the Second World War Edward Bawden served as an Official War Artist in the
British Army, travelling to Belgium, France and the Middle East. Whilst in the Middle East
he made portraits of soldiers serving with the British Army, alongside more general views
documenting the war effort. Bawden worked in watercolour and his paintings include
several images of military hospitals and of soldiers fighting for the British Army. It wasn’t just
people living in Britain that joined the British Army but also people from places such as the
West Indies, the Middle East and Africa.
Clive Branson 1907-1944
Clive Branson lived in Battersea in 1940 and so witnessed the London Blitz firsthand. The
Blitz was a period of sustained bombing of Britain during the Second World War. London
was bombed for 76 nights in a row while other towns and cities across Britain were also
targeted and suffered heavy casualties. This painting shows Branson’s wife, on the left,
rescuing belongings from a bombed building. The composition is slightly surreal as barrage
balloons loom overhead. Branson includes topical wartime references such as a ‘Dig for
Victory’ poster and ‘Vote Joyce, Say Peace’ which refers to William Joyce, a British Nazi
propagandist who appealed to the British to surrender.
Eric Kennington 1888-1960
During the First World War a group of artists were commissioned by the Bureau of
Information to produce The Great War: Britain’s Efforts and Ideals. Half the artists chosen
focused on ‘efforts’, whilst others focused on ‘ideals’. Eric Kennington created a series of
lithographs showing scenes of soldiers in the trenches. This lithograph shows a munitions
worker.
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The Great British Art Debate at Museums Sheffield
Henry Moore 1898-1986
Henry Moore was on his way home from his studio one evening in 1940 when he came
across people sheltering from the air raids in Belsize Park underground station. He became
fascinated by the rows of figures and when he returned to his studio he made some
drawings from memory. Moore had resisted being an Official War Artist, however upon
seeing these drawings Kenneth Clark, chairman of the War Artists Advisory Committee
persuaded Moore to accept the title.
Percy Horton 1897-1970
During the First Word War Percy Horton was a conscientious objector and was sentenced to
two years hard labour in Carlton Prison, Edinburgh. After the war, he took up his art studies
again and also began giving classes at the Working Men’s College in London. He painted
portraits of the unemployed during the Depression as he believed that artists should be
committed to social issues. He later produced work showing scenes in factories for the War
Artists Advisory Committee.
Ceri Richards 1903-1971
The International Surrealist Exhibition was held at the Burlington Galleries in the summer of
1936, and for a brief moment London was ‘the centre of the Surrealist universe’. Richards
was not included in the exhibition, but was influenced by the work of Max Ernst, Pablo
Picasso and Joan Miró which he saw there. Subsequently Richards began to include more
pronounced erotic references in his own loosely surreal work. This construction shows two
contrasting representations of the female form. One is virginal seductive and the other is
more obviously sexual.
Jankel Adler 1895-1949
Jankel Adler was a Polish Jew and a Socialist. He was forced to leave Germany in 1933
when the Nazis came to power. He went to Warsaw and Paris before arriving in Britain as a
member of the Polish army. This work was painted as a response to the London Blitz. Adler
admired ‘the behaviour of Londoners under great stress and suffering, only then could
humanity be seen at its best’. He compares the Blitz spirit with his own experiences as a
Jewish refugee upon hearing news of the Concentration Camps.
Wyndham Lewis 1882-1957
Edith Sitwell (in the portrait) was one of the most important experimental British poets of
her generation. She published her first poems in 1915 and from 1916-21 she edited the
controversial magazine Wheels. This included cutting-edge young poets such as Wilfred
Owen and Aldous Huxley who reacted against conservatism in poetry. Sitwell had
struggled to gain independence from her parents.
Lewis had been close to Edith Sitwell and her two brothers Osbert and Sacheverell during
the early 1920s. However the Sitwells came to represent all that Lewis resented in society
and politics, which made the sittings for this portrait difficult. Lewis behaved badly and
Sitwell refused to sit for him anymore. Sitwell did not like the way she looked, but was
proud of her elegant hands. Lewis left them out of the portrait, perhaps to spite her.