Not all is fair in love and war, but the love of war art is clear in two new exhibits opening today at the Canadian War Museum.

As part of the Ottawa museum’s commemoration of the First World War’s 100-year anniversary, the new exhibitions feature art work that sheds light not only on what happened during the war, but also the war’s consequences.

Laura Brandon, the museum’s director of research, exhibition and interpretation, says that the exhibitions allow the museum to share the human experiences during the war.

“A hundred years later, we know that the First World War transformed the country we live in,” she says. “With these two exhibitions, we’re able to witness that transformation as it happens.”

The Transformations exhibition features over 70 paintings, drawings and prints influenced by the First World War and created by two war artists, Group of Seven member A.Y. Jackson and German painter and printmaker Otto Dix. James Whitham, the Canadian War Museum’s director general, says this exhibition “traces the First World War influence on the landscape art of the two now-celebrated artists who, in their early years, fought on opposing sides.”

When the First World War ended, Jackson returned to a victorious nation and helped found the first major Canadian national art movement. “Even as Jackson’s art is grounded in patriotism and celebrated the raw beauty and growing confidence of our young country, his war experiences were never far away,” Whitham says.

Meanwhile, in post-war Germany, Whitham says Dix lost his job and hundreds of his works of art were destroyed. Though his paintings and drawings during the war concentrated on the war’s destruction, Dix’s post-war art focused on the tragic human consequences of war.