American official war artists

Rice distribution at Carrefour in Haiti after the earthquake in 2010. Oil sketch by Sgt. Kristopher Battles, USMC

American official war artists have been part of the American military since 1917. Artists are unlike the objective camera lens which records only a single instant and no more. The war artist captures instantaneous action and conflates earlier moments of the same scene within one compelling image.[1]

"We're not here to do poster art or recruiting posters... What we are sent to do is to go to the experience, see what is really there and document it—as artists."

— Sgt. Kristopher Battles, USMC.[2]

History

In World War I, eight artists commissioned as captains in the U.S. Corps of Engineers. These men were sent to Europe to record the activities of the American Expeditionary Forces.[3]

In 1941, the Navy Combat Art Program was founded in order to ensure that competent artists would be present at the scene of history-making events. Eight active duty artists developed a record of all phases of World War II; and all major naval operations have been depicted by Navy artists. During the Korean War, the program was revived with two military artists in combat contexts. Since then, artists have been sent to other combat zones, including the Persian Gulf.[1]

The U.S. Army War Art Unit was established in late 1942; and by the spring of 1943, 42 artists were selected. In May 1943, Congress withdrew funding the unit was inactivated.[3]

The Army's Vietnam Combat Art Program was started in 1966. Teams of soldier-artists created pictorial accounts and interpretations for the annals of army military history. These teams of five soldier-artists typically spent 60 days of temporary duty (TDY) in Vietnam embedded with various units. The U. S. Army Center of Military History (CMH) currently includes an Army Art Collection with about 40 representative war artists.[4]

In 1992, the Army Staff Artist Program was attached to the United States Army Center of Military History. Army artists are a permanent part of the Museum Division's Collections Branch.[3]

There are significant differences in the artwork created by the branches of the U.S. military:

When you go over to the Air Force, the art is all airplanes. In the Navy, it's all ships. Army art tends to be more about the battle, and the Army loves trucks. They're fixated on vehicles. But the Marine Corps is fixated on Marines.

— Anita Blair, chief strategist at the National Security Professional Development Integration Office[2]

Scope

Military art and the work of American military artists includes both peacetime and wartime. For example, USMC combat artist Kristopher Battles deployed with American forces in Haiti to provide humanitarian relief as part of Operation Unified Response after the disastrous earthquake in 2010.[5]

Select artists

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

World War I

World War II

Vietnam Era

Soldier Artist Participants in the U. S. Army Vietnam Combat Artists Program

Recent conflicts

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Naval History & Heritage Command (NHHC), Navy Combat Art Program Archived 2012-06-14 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ a b Kino, Carol. "With Sketchpads and Guns, Semper Fi"; "Marine Art," New York Times. July 13, 2010.
  3. ^ a b c United States Army Center of Military History (CMH), Army Art Program History Archived 2010-07-27 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ^ "U.S. Army Vietnam Combat Art Program". Archived from the original on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
  5. ^ Sketchpad Warrior blog, "It's All in the Wrist," May 25, 2010.
  6. ^ a b c d e CMH, artists, p. 1.
  7. ^ a b c CMH, artists, p. 2.
  8. ^ NHHC, McClelland Barclay, Naval Art Collection. Archived 2006-04-14 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ "Artist, Teacher, and Innovator Franklin Boggs". Beloit College Magazine (240622). Beloit, Wisconsin: Beloit College. Spring 2010. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  10. ^ a b c d Brown University Library, American war artists Archived 2010-01-06 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ PBS. They Drew Fire: Combat Artists of World War II, Howard Brodie. 1st broadcast, May 2000.
  12. ^ "18 Mar 1945, 109 - The San Francisco Examiner at Newspapers.com". Retrieved 2019-03-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "TSHA | Camp Barkeley". tshaonline.org. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  14. ^ CMH, Olin Dows
  15. ^ NHHC, William Franklin Draper, Naval Art Collection; PBS. They Drew Fire, William Draper.
  16. ^ "31 Aug 1949, Page 4 - The Mercury at Newspapers.com". Retrieved 2019-03-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "13 Mar 1947, Page 26 - The Indiana Gazette at Newspapers.com". Retrieved 2019-03-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "21 Mar 1950, 9 - The Lincoln Star at Newspapers.com". Retrieved 2019-03-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ Harrington, Peter, "The 1943 War Art Program," Army History, No. 55, Spring-Summer 2002, pp. 4-19.
  20. ^ a b c d "7 Nov 1949, 11 - The Tampa Tribune at Newspapers.com". Retrieved 2019-03-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ "Artist Ludwig Mactarian conveyed the grit of a combat engineer's life". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  22. ^ Heim, Gordon H. (2005). "The Art of John R. McDermott" (PDF). Fortitudine. XXXI (4): 13–14.[permanent dead link‍]
  23. ^ a b The Army at War: A Graphic Record by American Artists. United States. War Finance Division. 31 December 1943.

References

  • McCloskey, Barbara. (2005). Artists of World War II. Westport: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-32153-5; OCLC 475496457
  • An article from the Wilmington Star News in 2009 by Ben Steelman:

Further reading

  • Gallatin, Albert Eugene. Art and the Great War. (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1919).
  • Cornebise, Alfred. Art from the trenches: America's uniformed artists in World War I. (A & M University Press, 1991).
  • Harrington, Peter, and Frederic A. Sharf. "A Splendid Little War". The Spanish–American War, 1898: The Artists' Perspective. (London: Greenhill, 1998). ISBN 1-85367-316-1