Remembrances of War: Art by Paul Joyce
Remembrances of War
Between memory, imagination and reality
Exhibition open 13 September - 18 November 2025
Paul Joyce was born in 1940, under the shadow of the Second World War even before his birth: while heavily pregnant, his mother was pursued across a field in Whitchurch by machine gun fire from a German plane.
BILE BEANS
His work bears this legacy, mixing childhood memories of playing amid the rubble of a bombed-out Crystal Palace with the received cultural memories of a city, nation, and world nearly destroyed. The paintings in the collection reflect this interplay between first-hand and received experience: paintings of the smouldering detritus of South London sit alongside imagined scenes of the destruction at Hiroshima and elsewhere across Europe.
Paul explains, ‘My first thoughts on beginning the series were to paint exactly what I remembered, but then I began to throw the net wider, and included London images which I had not personally experienced, as for the length of the war I was based in Hampshire.’
A frequent theme is the absurd power of war to fuse the apocalyptic and banal: in his work, Bovril and beans clash with bombs, a German fighter plane lies amid the haystacks of the English countryside in an ‘Unusual Harvest’, and the Tower of London crouches beneath barrage balloons.
DOWN!
Joyce says, ‘I think I must be one of the last artists born during WW2 still painting the conflict as a subject. As a painter I find myself returning to a project I started some years ago, representing some of my recollections of the war.’
He cites Paul Nash and Eric Ravilious as influences, with the juxtaposition of pastoral scenes and military elements characterising this exhibition, but with striking, dramatic colours. His paintings are devoid of people, populated instead by planes, objects and the built environment, but they still speak of the people of the apocalyptic landscapes he paints.
Remembrances of War sets Joyce’s paintings alongside artefacts from Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museums collection which explore how everyday people rationalise and live through extraordinary events and conflicts.
The exhibition welcomes visitors of all ages, with special activities and interactive experiences for children, including a reconstructed 1940s bedroom, and arts and crafts areas.
BATTLE OF BRITAIN
Entry to the exhibition includes entry to the other galleries, including an immersive Anderson Shelter and First World War Trench, the permanent exhibits, and the temporary exhibition Life Lines, exploring the liberation of Bergen-Belsen through community art projects focusing on the power of acts of kindness.
Paul Joyce: Remembrances of War is on display at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock from 13th September 2025 to 18th November 2025. The Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday 11am to 5pm, and Sunday 2pm to 5pm.
