BU anncounces three important new exhibitions

A Brush with Evil: Holocaust Crowd Scene II, by Peter Howson opens on Wednesday 14 June

This monumental canvas, a visceral and haunting representation of the horror and brutality of the Nazi concentration camps, depicts Jewish
prisoners in various attitudes of grief, suffering and lamentation.

Its structure and composition reference classical and Christian imagery, such as Rubens’ Massacre of the Innocents and representations of the dead Christ (or pietà), powerfully underlining the prisoners’ martyrdom.

Painter, printmaker, and muralist Peter Howson was born in London in 1958 to Scottish parents and moved with his family to Prestwick, near
Glasgow, at the age of four. He studied at Glasgow School of Art and is a former Artist-in-Residence at the University of St Andrews, and part-time tutor at Glasgow School of Art.

He has received numerous awards, including the Henry Moore Foundation award, and has established a significant reputation as a central figure in
the school of Scottish figurative painting.

A Brush with Evil: The Nuremberg Trials, 1946, by Dame Laura Knight opens on Wednesday 26 July

Laura Knight, one of the most distinguished artists of the 20th century, was the second woman to be elected to full membership of the Royal
Academy, the first woman to be honoured with a full retrospective at the Royal Academy and the only woman to be appointed as an official war
artist in both World Wars.

Celebrated for her depictions of the circus, ballet and the Romany
community, Knight embraced realism and English impressionism during her long and distinguished career.

At the age of 68, she was appointed as Britain’s official war artist to the trials and granted rare access to the Nuremberg courtroom. From the American press box, she captured the intense drama and emotion of the trial of 22 notorious Nazi criminals.

This exhibition is a rare opportunity to see Knight's two principal, powerful and insightful preparatory works for the painting of the same name on permanent display at the Imperial War Museum, created at and during one of the most important trials in modern history.

Sheer Verve opens 13 September

The Women’s International Art Club (WIAC) was founded in Paris in
1898 as an exhibition platform and networking forum for women artists at a time of restricted opportunities in a male-dominated art establishment.
The inaugural exhibition at London’s Grafton Galleries in 1900 went on to become a feted annual event until the club was dissolved in 1978.

Celebrating the 125th anniversary of the WIAC, Ben Uri’s exhibition showcases the club’s “sheer verve” (Bettina Wadia, ArtsReview, 26
January 1963), juxtaposing work by 20 Ben Uri Collection artists from a Jewish and/or immigrant background with extensive institutional and private loan works.