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  3. Looking to Sea: What Coastal Art Tells Us About Modern Britain
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Looking to Sea: What Coastal Art Tells Us About Modern Britain

Lily Le Brun

5 Reviews

Rated 0

United Kingdom, Great Britain, Oceans & seas, History of art / art & design styles, History of art & design styles: from c 1900 -, Animals & nature in art (still life, landscapes & , 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000

Looking to Sea is an alternative history of Britain in the twentieth century, told through the prism of ten iconic artworks of the sea, one for each decade.

'A remarkable and compelling book . . . I loved it'
Edmund de Waal

'Ambitious . . . a chronicle of British art, unfurled against the panoramic backdrop of 20th-century history'
Sunday Telegraph

In this remarkable modern history of Britain, the ebbs and flows of the twentieth century are explored through ten pivotal artworks. Each coastal piece, created between 1912 and 2015, opens a window onto the ideas that have shaped our society, from the impact of the world wars and colonialism to conceptions of class and nationhood.

Bold and imaginative, Looking to Sea is an exquisite work of cultural storytelling, and a fascinating portrait of our island nation.


'At once bold and delicate, far-reaching and fine-tuned'
Alexandra Harris

'Empathy and intelligence lift memoir into cultural history'
Iain Sinclair

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Praise for Looking to Sea: What Coastal Art Tells Us About Modern Britain

  • This history of twentieth-century Britain, refracted through ten artistic responses to the sea, is beautifully written - authoritative and questioning; scholarly, but also vividly insightful about bodies, private lives, feelings, the often-overlooked quotidian.

  • Ambitious . . . accessible . . . a chronicle of British art, unfurled against the panoramic backdrop of 20th-century history - Sunday Telegraph

  • A carefully considered and enjoyable mix of biography, art criticism and personal reflection - Spectator

  • One for wild swimmers, beachcombers, wind surfers and all who like to be beside the seaside with a sketchbook and watercolour set. In her first, transporting book, Lily Le Brun sweeps the beaches of the past century of British art, collecting treasures from sea, shingle and shore . . . A book to pack in your picnic basket for shivering dips, heatwave day trips and ice-cream Sundays. - The Times

  • Each chapter mixes biography with anecdote, cultural criticism with lyrical description and wider philosophical musing . . . Le Brun apparently uses the artists' own visions to comment on today's Britain, though in fact her own range often outstrips theirs - Financial Times

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