Edward Ardizzone’s Multimedial Play with Format in his War Diaries

Abstract

The object of my article is Edward Ardizzone’s manuscripts of his four illustrated war diaries (1943-1945) preserved in his archives at the IWM in London, the published edition of his diaries entitled Diary of a War Artist (1974), the larger ink/watercolors commissioned by the WAAC during WWII which ensued from his preliminary sketches introduced in the bound pages of his diaries and finally the numerous unpublished images embedded between the manuscript pages of his diaries. His diaries represent a rich literary and pictorial context to study the aesthetic and transformative elements of format. Ardizzone’s play with format is multidimensional and complex as he uses various media (pencil, pen, watercolor, ink and wash) and different supports (pages of his bound diaries, sheets of paper, graph paper, watercolor paper) which vary greatly in dimension. The ever-changing format of his handwritten diary entries punctuated with sketches which visually interrupt his narrative, enhances the complexity of the diaries’ formats. Finally, the discrepancies I have observed between the manuscript versions of his diaries and its published edition adds another layer of complexity to my study of how format influenced Ardizzone’s creative output but also imposed physical restrictions on his artistic endeavours.

Keywords

• format
• Ardizzone (Edward)
• diaries
• sketches
• paintings
• unpublished manuscripts