Iain Gale on exhibitions

As the 50th anniversary of the end of total war approaches, there is a chance to discover the diversity of artistic responses to the armistice. The most impressive show must be "1945, the End of the War" at Annely Juda in London. No country was spared the horror of war and here is the international perspective on global conflict. Alongside the abstract and neo-romantic aspects of British art, represented by Moore, Hepworth, Freud and Hitchens, hang such American avant-gardists as Newman, Pollock and Rothko, and European masters including Arp, Beckman, Fautrier, Hartung and Picasso.

A more in-depth look at the condition of British art in 1945 is offered by "Flowers of Peace", an exhibition at Pallant House, Chichester. Bacon rubs shoulders with Bomberg, Colquhoun with Sutherland. It is a good opportunity too to examine the work of the often neglected talents of Ceri Richards, John Tunnard and Merlyn Evans. While much of the work is understandably celebratory, there is also a more reflective interest in "what we were fighting for".

For some understanding of quite what this has meant you could do little better than investigate Utopias, a recently published guide to art in Sussex, Kent and Surrey (South East Tourist Board). Twelve itineraries guide the visitor through the heritage of the counties that in effect formed Britain's wartime front line, taking in such gems as the newly- restored De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill, the Eric Ravilious collection in Eastbourne and Rex Whistler's frescoes at Port Lympne. It is sobering to remember that neither Ravilious nor Whistler themselves survived to see the end of the war.

Below: detail from Adolph Gottlieb's Festival, part of the '1945' exhibition at Annely Juda