About this artwork
Editor: This is Peter Howson's "Plum Grove," an oil painting, currently at the Tate. It's… unsettling. The figures feel both monumental and vulnerable. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Howson often explores masculinity and violence within a specific social context. Considering his own experiences with trauma, how might we interpret this scene as a commentary on the cycles of abuse and the loss of innocence? Editor: I didn't think of it that way. It makes me think about how trauma can be passed down through generations. Curator: Exactly. And how artistic expression becomes a way to process and challenge societal norms around power. It's a complex, multi-layered work. Editor: I will never look at this painting the same way again! Curator: That is why we engage with art!
Artwork details
- Dimensions
- support: 2137 x 1523 x 27 mm
- Location
- Tate Collections
- Copyright
- © Peter Howson 2014. All Rights Reserved DACS | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Comments
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/howson-plum-grove-t06961
The break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s unleashed savage fighting, particularly in the ethnically-mixed region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1993, Howson accompanied a British contingent of the United Nations Peace Keeping Force to Bosnia as the Official War Artist. Many of his resulting paintings depict scenes of appalling degradation including rape, castration and impaling. Plum Grove combines scenes witnessed by the artist with Croatian accounts of the treatment of their men by Muslim captors. Howson’s works are not intended to be partisan, however, addressing individual cruelty and suffering. Gallery label, November 2006
About this artwork
Editor: This is Peter Howson's "Plum Grove," an oil painting, currently at the Tate. It's… unsettling. The figures feel both monumental and vulnerable. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Howson often explores masculinity and violence within a specific social context. Considering his own experiences with trauma, how might we interpret this scene as a commentary on the cycles of abuse and the loss of innocence? Editor: I didn't think of it that way. It makes me think about how trauma can be passed down through generations. Curator: Exactly. And how artistic expression becomes a way to process and challenge societal norms around power. It's a complex, multi-layered work. Editor: I will never look at this painting the same way again! Curator: That is why we engage with art!
Comments
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/howson-plum-grove-t06961
The break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s unleashed savage fighting, particularly in the ethnically-mixed region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1993, Howson accompanied a British contingent of the United Nations Peace Keeping Force to Bosnia as the Official War Artist. Many of his resulting paintings depict scenes of appalling degradation including rape, castration and impaling. Plum Grove combines scenes witnessed by the artist with Croatian accounts of the treatment of their men by Muslim captors. Howson’s works are not intended to be partisan, however, addressing individual cruelty and suffering. Gallery label, November 2006
