Strange to say it, but the artists Higgins meets and the work she describes are less interesting than her observations about war itself, with which the late Susan Sontag, once bunkered in a Sarajevo theatre during the siege, would surely have agreed.

A 2001 EXHIBITION at the now fire devastated Glasgow School of Art was called “Art Booms with the Guns”. It explored whether art is stimulated by conflict, maybe contributes to its successful resolution and a better future beyond, or whether it rep resents a diminution of the national effort: are there too many urgent priorities to be making watercolours or doing ballet? Charlotte Higgins is an arts correspondent by trade but persuaded her editor to send her to Ukraine (where the present shell of the GSA would fit right in) to report on how artists there are responding to the conflict.

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