You are invited to visit the new show opening on "Afghanistan and Iraq: Combat Art," from the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps Combat Art Programs.
Pictured here is USMC Warrant Officer and Combat Artist Michael Fay, with his unfinished canvas for "Between Sunset and Moonrise, Wazir Pass, Afghanistan" (oil paint on gessoed watercolor paper).
Fay is one of the combat artists featured in the exhibit, and we've written about his powerful work before on this blog: here, here, and here, among others. Marine Sgt. Kristopher Battles is another U.S. Marine Combat Artist whose work will be featured in the exhibit. Both come from a long tradition of those told to "Go to War, Make Art" -- both in the Marine Corps and in the other branches of the military.
See the superb PBS series, "They Drew Fire," for more on combat artists. Abbott Laboratories has its own magnificent collection of war art. For more on the Marine Corps combat art program, and its permanent inclusion in the new Marine Corps Museum, click here. For a look at Mike Fay's personal blog, Fire and Ice, click here.
We're going to assume that the combat art show is going to be in the same place the opening for it is: in other words, the (irony) Cold War Gallery, Building 70, at the Navy Museum, in the Washington Navy Yard. My guess is it's moving later to the permanent digs at the new Marine Corps Museum. If this information later on turns out to be different, I'll update it when I know for sure. In the meantime, here's a link to the Cold War Gallery: there does not seem to be a page up yet for the show itself (bummer).
In the meantime, at right is a look at Fay's finished work for "Between Sunset and Moonrise, Wazir Pass, Afghanistan." His artwork, which the BBC and the Wall Street Journal have both profiled, contains any number of extremely moving images, particularly his sketchwork, and recently his bronzes. Amazing stuff. If you're in the DC area, do yourself the favor of catching this show, and acquainting yourself with the rich tradition of combatants who clarify through art what it's really like to be a veteran of war: the bad, the good and the ugly.
And while you're at it, be sure to check out our extensive collection here of links to art and war, and also art therapy -- a modality that doesn't work for everyone, but for those whom it helps, including combat veterans, a true blessing as a way to process the images lodged in the subconscious through a means that releases them therapeutically (i.e., catharsis).
