Member Previews—Imagined Fronts: The Great War and Global Media

Imagined Fronts: The Great War and Global Media explores how the media spectacle in which we live had origins in World War I and the burgeoning mediascape of posters, photography, cinema, illustrated newspapers, and ephemera that made it the first global media war. How did the media and artists imagine a war encompassing the entire world? Combatants included forces from Australia, Canada, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as racially and ethnically diverse American and Indigenous peoples including Māori, First Peoples, and Choctaw “code talkers.” Imagined Fronts will consider how the media mobilized the masses, imagined the battlefield, facilitated the global war, and contained the aftermath. With some 200 objects by artists, war photographers, and filmmakers as well as soldiers from across several continents, Imagined Fronts will explore the intermingling of mass media and the artistic imagination.

Access to Member Previews is a benefit of membership and as such is restricted to LACMA members only. Children accompanied by LACMA members are welcome in Member Preview galleries, but please note that discounted guest tickets purchased by members do not grant guests admission to Member Preview galleries.