The Canadian War Memorials Exhibition opened in the galleries of the Royal Academy in Burlington House in January 1919. Featuring four hundred paintings and sculptures depicting the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the First World War, the exhibition became the gala event of the London art season.

Art at the Service of War is the story of how artists as diverse as modernist Paul Nash, the revolutionary Vorticist Wyndham Lewis, and young Canadians such as A.Y. Jackson came to paint Canada’s war. Bringing together the artists, critics, and art gallery owners with patrons, military leaders, and politicians, the experience exposed Canadians to modern art at a time that the artists themselves were just beginning to explore this area.

First published in 1984, Art at the Service of War was one of the first contributions to Canadian cultural history. With the approaching hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War, this book provides a timely reminder of the impact of this conflict even beyond the military and political spheres.

Dr. Maria Tippett is one of Canada's most prominent cultural historians and the author of many books on art, culture, and history, including Emily Carr; Stormy Weather: F.H. Varley, a Biography; and Bill Reid: The Making of an Indian. She has lectured extensively on Canadian art and culture in North and South America, Japan, and Europe, and has curated exhibitions in Canada and abroad. Her books have won numerous awards, including the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction and the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize for Canadian History. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, she was for many years a Senior Research Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge, and a member of the Faculty of History at Cambridge University. Maria Tippett lives with her husband, historian Peter Clarke, in British Columbia.

Maria Tippett's profile page

‘Art at the Service of War is a carefully researched and clearly written account of the Canadian War Memorial Fund … This is a handsome and valuable book.’

Canadian Historical Review

‘Lord Beaverbrook’s imaginative scheme to send artists to the front in the First World War is alluded to from time to time in general histories. But the full story, with all its cultural and political implications, is told in fascinating detail in Art at the Service of War.’

The Globe and Mail

‘The works explored in this centenary book are "not just memorials" but also art works of extraordinary power".’

BC Studies April 2016