Conclusion: ‘Half-baked if you like’—modernist afterlives in Britain, 1945–1951
Conclusion: ‘Half-baked if you like’—modernist afterlives in Britain, 1945–1951
This chapter concludes Insane Acquaintances, reflecting on some of the legacies of the pre-War modernist activity in Britain. It argues that while, ultimately, the revolution in taste that so many of the mediators of modernism in Britain wished to enact did not take place, the legacies of their activities continued to be felt after the War. Indeed, the kinds of activity that Fry, Read and others agitated for before the War – an engagement with continental non-representational art amongst the public, the fostering of state activity to encourage experimental art, and the development of an institutional apparatus to support and scaffold such art – reached their apotheosis in the first years of the post-War consensus. This chapter explores some of these afterlives of the modernist moment in Britain.
Keywords: mediator, institutions of art, Festival of Britain, afterlives of modernism
British Academy Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
