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Modernism on Sea: Art and Culture at the British Seaside

In their introduction to Modernism on Sea, editors Lara Feigel and Alexandra Harris ask: ‘Why . . . is modernism so often linked with the life of the city and so rarely with the shore?’ (p. 3). The volume investigates the numerous ways the British coast has influenced twentieth-century artists. The introduction gives a brief history of how the seaside changed over the twentieth century. What comes through strongly in this volume is that the seaside is both a physical and psychical space: it exists both in reality and in the imagination, and is a landscape constantly subject to change. ‘The seaside shapes the work of artists, and in turn artists shape the seaside with their own preoccupations’, write Feigel and Harris (p. 4). With its classic British seaside red-and-white front cover and glossy photographs in the style of a holiday brochure, Modernism on Sea is a celebration of the British seaside as both a historical reality and a cultural fantasy. Indeed, the way that this volume has been put together resembles a holiday album. Instead of a ‘notes on contributors’ section at the start, each contributor’s note is placed beside their essay, suggesting that the essay is the contributor’s ‘photograph’ or picture of a particular aspect of the British seaside. Furthermore, the pages separating each part of the collection contain pen drawings of seaside objects, such as a lighthouse, pier and ship, making the book feel oddly personal. The volume is divided into six parts: ‘Seaside Holidays’, ‘Sand and Stucco’, ‘Seaside Poetics’, ‘Nautical Style’, ‘Social Change on the Promenade’ and ‘Modernism and After’. Part of the volume’s attraction is that it contains an eclectic mix of essays on a range of subjects. Like a holiday beside the sea, there is something for everyone. Andrew Kötting’s fascinating essay, ‘Beside the Seaside, Beside the Sea’, discusses his film Gallivant, which centres on a trip he made around the British coast with his daughter and grandmother. Kötting takes a snapshot of a family and British society in 1996, and looks at the seaside’s ability to bring people together. Lara Feigel and Alexandra Harris, eds, Modernism on Sea: Art and Culture at the British Seaside, Peter Lang, 2009, £25 hardback 978 1 9061 6524 6. R E V I E W . .......