Fighting History is the first book to engage with the story of British history painting and its survival into contemporary practice today. Beautifully illustrated with works from the Tate collection, as well as a number of paintings from other institutions and from practicing artists, the book traces the tradition of history painting from the baroque allegory of the seventeenth-century court to contemporary works by Dexter Dalwood, Jeremy Deller, Michael Fullerton, and others. Three short essays address themes in history painting, from the question of the shifting meanings of 'history painting' to an account of the great radical artists in the genre. In an interview with Dexter Dalwood, one of Britain's most celebrated contemporary painters, the artist explains the enduring significance of history painting in twentieth-century art and in his own practice. Includes contributions from Mark Salber Phillips, Dexter Dalwood, Clare Barlow and M. G. Sullivan.

Author Biography

M. G. Sullivan is Curator, British Art 1750 - 1830, at Tate Britain Clare Barlow is Assistant Curator, British Art 1750-1830, at Tate Britain. Mark Salber Phillips is Professor of History at Carleton University, Ottawa. He is the author of Society and Sentiment: the Genres of Historical Writing in Britain 1740-1820 (2000) and On Historical Distance (2013). Dexter Dalwood is advisor on Fighting History at Tate Britain. His contemporary history paintings were the subject of a retrospective at Tate St Ives in 2010, and he was a nominee for the Turner Prize in 2004.