In the Somme valley, the back of language broke. It could no longer carry its former meanings. World War I changed the life of words and images in art, radically and forever. It brought our culture into the age of mass-produced, industrialized death. This, at first, was indescribable.

Robert Hughes
About This Quote

The Somme was a battle during World War I. The back of language broke in the Somme valley. It could no longer carry its former meanings. World War I changed the life of words and images in art, radically and forever.

It brought our culture into the age of mass-produced, industrialized death. This, at first, was indescribable and it made people unable to express what they had experienced on those fields of battle.

Source: The Shock Of The New

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