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Paintings by Matthew Cook of the current conflict in Afghanistan to be displayed at the National Army Museum

The Road to Kabul: British Armies in Afghanistan, 1839-1919

Opening: Thursday 9 September 2010 until Spring 2011
Press View: Wednesday 8 September 2010

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Twenty works depicting the current conflict in Afghanistan by contemporary war artist and illustrator Matthew Cook will go on display at the National Army Museum in September. The paintings will form a complimentary part of the Museum's new exhibition The Road to Kabul: British Armies in Afghanistan, 1839-1919 which examines the history and legacies of the First, Second and Third Afghan wars, which have largely been forgotten in Britain, although not so in Afghanistan.

Matthew Cook was the War Artist for The Times in the Iraq War and was invited by the Army to accompany soldiers serving in Afghanistan in both 2006 and 2009. His images depict all aspects of a modern soldier's life from playing football outside patrol base to clearing suspected areas of IEDs. Within The Road to Kabul, Cook's paintings provide a reminder of the British Army's ongoing presence in Afghanistan as well as visual parallels between the life of a serving soldier in Afghanistan in the present, and in the past.

The Road to Kabul explores the First, Second and Third Afghan Wars using the National Army Museum's rich Collection to tell the story of each of the wars and their key moments chronologically. The Museum holds the definitive Collection relating to the British Army's involvement in Afghanistan and a number of objects with powerful stories to tell will be exhibited.

Alongside these objects, the museum will also be displaying a number of artworks related to the conflicts, many of which were sketched by serving soldiers in the First and Second Afghan Wars including:

  • The journal of Lieutenant Thomas Gaisford containing a beautiful sketch of Ghazni and the Afghan defences in the city from the First Afghan War.
  • A dramatic depiction of the sacking of the Great Bazaar of Kabul by Lieutenant George Alfred Croly from the First Afghan War.
  • A number of sketches by Lieutenant John Frederick Irwin, which depict a more intimate side of soldiers' life in the Second Afghan War, including a football match at Kandahar, which Irwin believed to be the first game of football ever played in Afghanistan".
  • Two lithographs based on Lieutenant John Day's sketches, which depict the progress of his regiment back towards India in the Second Afghan War.

The Museum will be displaying many paintings by Matthew Cook that haven't been on display in the Museum before" said Emma Mawdsley from the Museum's Fine Art Department, The Road to Kabul exhibition will provide an excellent opportunity to see Matthew Cook's work in the context of paintings of the historical conflicts, enabling visitors to draw their own parallels."

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Visitor Information

Address:National Army Museum
Royal Hospital Road
Chelsea
London
SW3 4HT

Date: 9 September until 2011

Admission: Free

Opening hours: Daily from 10.00am until 5.30pm

Visitor enquiries: 020 7730 0717

Website: www.nam.ac.uk

For more information or images please contact:

The National Army Museum press office on pr@national-army-museum.ac.uk or 020 7730 0717 Ext 2535

Editors Notes

The National Army Museum explores the impact of the British Army on the story of Britain, Europe and the world; how Britain's past has helped to shape our present and our future and how the actions of a few can affect the futures of many.

The National Army Museum was established by Royal Charter to tell the story of the Land Forces of the Crown wherever they were raised. Opened by the Queen in 1960, it moved to its current site in Chelsea in 1971.

Matthew Cook is a trained illustrator and Territorial Army soldier with nearly twenty years of experience. He was chosen by The Times to act as an artist-reporter in Iraq in 2003 before being deployed there as a TA soldier the following year. As an artist, he accompanied the The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry to Afghanistan in 2006 and returned there as a guest of 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines in 2009. His work has been featured extensively in The Times throughout this period and has also been exhibited at the Ministry of Defence main building.