Art at War, France 1938–1947: From Picasso to Dubuffet

This exhibition highlights what has long remained in the shadows of history: art produced in resistance to the political atmosphere in France around the period of the Second World War. The political and military situation influenced artists’ work; with a minimum of resources they had to adapt their tools to express their situation through the limits of forms and the luck of materials. Gathered together and explored and commented on in ten strong sequences, the works presented explain how, in a menacing context of oppression and scarcity (between 1938 and 1947), artists profoundly modified the content and forms of art in France.