The Art in War

Where: Air and Space Museum

When: closing November 11, 2018

All wars are terrible and World War I's trench warfare have always seemed to me to be especially barbaric.  Stuck in filthy conditions for an endless period of time, with the fear of death a constant presence, how people survived this, let alone made art, is incredible.  Nonetheless, there were artists in the trenches and elsewhere near the front lines, and their work is on display at the Air and Space Museum.

Side note: Why Air and Space?  There's not a particular focus on pilots or airplanes, so the location doesn't really make sense.  American Art would be more understandable, or the Ripley.  But Air and Space is where this is, so to Air and Space you must go to see it.  Keep in mind, it's summer as I type this, so the Mall is thick with family groups.  Expect running, screaming and masses of people, pretty much par for the course at A&S.

The wall notes posit that the artistic expression in WWI contributed to how societies see war, as this was the first time the reality of battle had been brought to the notice of the civilian populations.   I wonder if this is true; the photos of dead soldiers in the American Civil War brought combat home quite directly.  I don't think anyone by the time of the early 20th century was truly under any illusions about the reality of war.  The government recruitment posters certainly painted a rosy picture of noble men making the world safe for democracy, but surely most people would have realized that was more propaganda than anything else.

Something I didn't realize is that even though the U.S. declared war in April of 1917, the first American troops didn't arrive in Europe until early 1918.  I know you can't assemble an army of volunteers overnight, but eight months of delay is a long time, especially to those soldiers counting on the U.S. troops to turn the tide of the war in their favor.

There were eight professional illustrators embedded with the American Expeditionary Force, specifically with the Engineer Corps of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  They created over 700 works which, after a display in the 1920s, have been largely unseen since.  This show is a selection of those works, along with works by regular soldiers.  Among the professionals' works, The Sentry, by Harvey Thomas Dunn, was the one that stuck with me - the eyes of the soldier depicted just stared out at nothing, really haunting.

The soldier artists created cave paintings (that was another fact I learned - soldiers lived in caves, as well as trenches for long periods of time during the war).  These focus on their homes and families - what they hope to return to.  They have been lost to view, as the caves are on private land.  A photographer traveled to France to record these works, so what you see are his photographs.

Verdict: Very moving show, an unsentimental look at a terrible conflict from those who lived it.  Highly recommended.