Thirty-five year old Scottish artist Peter Howson has been commissioned jointly by The Times newspaper and the Imperial War Museum to go to Bosnia. His most recent predecessors in this traditional British practise, dating back to World War I, have been John Keane, in the Gulf, and Linda Kitson, in the Falklands. The Artistic Records Committee, the responsible body, also sent out Jock Mcfadyen to Berlin in 1990 to mark the destruction of the Wall and the end of the Cold War. Mark Howson will probably go out with the Scottish units which are replacing the present contingent from the Cheshire regiment this month. An official artist is not expected to risk his life, nor does he have a precise brief; he is simply expected to respond to the situation. A spokesman for the museum says: "Our official artists attract a great deal of interest, particularly in Germany".
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'British war artist sent to Bosnia'