Gas Mask (SJ54), Sophie Jodoin, 2008, from the Series Helmets and Gasmasks, 2007-9. (Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries)

New exhibitions at Manchester Art Gallery: ‘The Sensory War’ and ‘Heaven in a Hell of War’

Two new exhibitions have been launched at Manchester Art Gallery in commemoration of the centenary.

The Sensory War 1914-2014‘ explores how artists have communicated the impact of military conflict on the body, mind, environment and human senses. ‘Stanley Spencer: Heaven in a Hell of War‘ is an exhibition of work by British painter Stanley Spencer, portraying his own wartime experiences.

The Sensory War 1914-2014

This exhibition examines how artists from 1914 onwards depicted the impact of new military technologies utilised in a century of conflict beginning with the First World War. It brings together work from a range of leading artists including Henry Lamb, CRW Nevinson, Paul Nash, Otto Dix, Nancy Spero, Richard Mosse, Omer Fast and features works by the hibakusha; survivors of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima which were created in the 1970s and are being shown in the UK for the first time.

The exhibition will run through February 22nd 2015

Stanley Spencer: Heaven in a Hell of War

This exhibition will feature a series of large-scale arched canvases and side panels detailing scenes of the artist’s own wartime experiences. Working as a soldier within a hospital, his recollections focus on the domestic rather than the combative and evoke everyday experience.

The exhibition will run through to March 1 2015

For more information about these and other exhibitions at the Manchester Art Gallery, click here