The Second World War was cataclysmic in every way. Eighty million died. Cities great and small were destroyed. The shocking atrocities of Hitler’s Final Solution were carried out like clockwork. After 1945, among the rubble, people began to rebuild. In Great Britain, citizens looked ahead to a better future. Among the hopeful were artists (some of whom were refugees from Europe). They too were looking ahead while still processing the Blitz, the Atom bomb, humanity’s failures. At Barbican, 200 works by 48 well known and lesser known artists reflect this complicated time. —Elena Clavarino