Richard Overy
is professor of history
at the University
of Exeter, editor of
The Times Complete
History of the World
(William Collins,
2015), and historical
consultant on
the upcoming
BBC One drama
series World on FireBR
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Making a splash
Silver over Black, White, Yellow and Red,
painted by American artist Jackson Pollock
in 1948, symbolises the shift to an art form
stressing colour and movement at the ex-
pense of form. Pollock (1912–56) was in the
vanguard of postwar artists experimenting
with extreme forms of abstract art; his so-
called ‘action painting’ technique involved
splattering paint over canvases spread on
the floor. The apparent randomness of this
process was misleading – in fact, Pollock
spent hours filling in lines, or dripping
paint in deliberate patterns on the canvas.Epic mistake
A poster for Victor Fleming’s 1948 film
Joan of Arc shows Ingrid Bergman as
the eponymous French heroine. The
145-minute epic attracted poor reviews
and lost money due to production costs,
despite its commercial success. Its director –
who had enjoyed great success with
The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the
Wind – was said to have wept from shame
on viewing the fina l cut. The film, and
Bergman’s career, faltered when news
broke of the married actor’s affair with
Italian director Roberto Rossellini. Two
months after the movie’s general release,
Fleming suffered a fatal heart attack.General in the dock
Japan’s wartime prime minister and military
commander, General Hideki Tojo, is tried at
the International Military Tribunal for the Far
East in Tokyo, on charges including crimes
against peace and crimes against humanity. The
trial found Hideki guilty on all but two counts;
on 12 November 1948 he, along with six other
defendants, was sentenced to be hanged. He
was executed on 23 December 1948.