National Constitution Center exhibition shows war through the eyes of artists

September 23, 2010|By Art Carey, Inquirer Staff Writer
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  • "Marines Call It That 2,000 Yard Stare," by Tom Lea, hangs at left as a visitor walks through the exhibition. "I painted my way through the war," said New Hope's Paul Rickert, whose work from Vietnam is on display.
"Marines Call It That 2,000 Yard Stare," by Tom Lea, hangs at left as a visitor…
  • "Marines Call It That 2,000 Yard Stare," by Tom Lea, hangs at left as a visitor walks through the exhibition. "I painted my way through the war," said New Hope's Paul Rickert, whose work from Vietnam is on display.
  • Paul Rickert, who lives in New Hope and still paints, is one of the Vietnam combat artists whose work is displayed. "I didn't fight the war. I was just over there observing it," he said.
  • John Wehrle headed the first Vietnam combat art team. "We were free to follow our own instincts," he said.
  • Roger Blum, a member of the first Vietnam combat art team, has seven works included in "Art of the American Soldier."
  • Vietnam artist Robert Knight, who has four works displayed, stands in front of one of them, "Night Convoy."

Working in oil and watercolor, New Hope artist Paul Rickert paints luminous scenes of the Maine coast and moody streetscapes of Chestnut Hill, where he once lived. He is fascinated by the mysteries of fog and hidden narratives beneath "the subtle drone of ordinary life."

But 44 years ago, when he was 19, Rickert's subject matter was altogether different - soldiers under fire rushing for a chopper, a soldier helping evacuate a wounded comrade, a soldier on a gurney linked to life by an IV line.

Rickert was a combat artist in Vietnam, one of dozens assigned by the Army to create a visual record of that long, inglorious war. His paintings and drawings are among more than 250 works of art in a magnificent new exhibition at the National Constitution Center, "Art of the American Soldier," opening Friday and continuing through Jan. 11.

Story continues below.

Drawn from the Army's rarely seen collection of nearly 16,000 paintings, watercolors, drawings, and cartoons, the show is an extraordinary sampling of the artistic impressions of soldiers from World War I, when the Army first deployed artists, to the present day, when it employs an official artist in residence.

"There's something so startling - that for 100 years the Army has been sending soldiers to the front lines to do art, and in a way that seems very unmilitary - basically letting them do whatever they feel artistically moved to do," says David Eisner, president and CEO of the Constitution Center. The exhibition "presents the human face of war in a way only an artist can, and in a way no newsreel or photograph could hope to."

The Army's art collection represents the work of about 1,300 artists, mostly soldiers.

"It's an amazing collection, and not a lot of people know it's here," says Sarah Forgey, its curator. The current exhibition is "a good opportunity to see a wide variety of what we have. This many pieces haven't been seen in one place in quite some time."

The art is representational and realistic, and organized thematically rather than chronologically - a soldier's life, duty, sacrifice. Soldiers exploring foreign lands, doing laundry, bathing, savoring mail, praying, playing baseball. Or overrunning enemy positions, scrambling for cover, rescuing comrades, dying in battle.

The section titled "The American Soldier" is a wall of moving, evocative portraits, including one by Rickert.

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