A call to arts: Exhibit showcases combat art back to World War I - Military Off Duty, Army Travel, hottest destinations - Army Times

A call to arts: Exhibit showcases combat art back to World War I

The two doughboys bravely rush the barbed-wired German machine gun nest with bayonets fixed — one crouched, looking for an opening through which to strike, the other standing, drawing a deadly bead on an adversary.

The American troops have gained the advantage, but an enemy “potato masher” hand grenade sailing over their heads threatens the assault.

George Harding’s 1918 combat snapshot, “Storming Machine Gun,” in sepia-toned charcoal, vividly evokes the grit and suspense of face-to-face combat and is one of the Army’s more than 15,000 works of art created by 1,300 American painters and military artists.

Most have lacked a dedicated museum for display and have remained hidden in storage in Washington, D.C.

But that will change Sept. 24 when the Art of the American Soldier exhibit opens in Philadelphia and runs through Jan. 10.

The exhibition’s 250 images, ranging from sketches penciled on ordinary paper to watercolors, oils and acrylic work, span everyday military life from World War I to Fallujah and beyond.

The exhibition is “powerful in its ability to convey and evoke the human experience of military conflict,” says David Eisner, president of the National Constitution Center, which will host the exhibition’s opening.

There is Lawrence Beall Smith’s 1944 oil, “The Man Without a Gun,” a somber portrait of a medic, empty boots and bloodied sheets at his feet.

Other works include Howard Hawks’ 1969 cubist watercolor of a Saigon street scene; Al Sprague’s sun-splashed paratrooper hanging by a strap as he readies himself to jump into Panama in 1988 in “Moment of Truth”; Peter Varisano’s 1991 sketchlike watercolor of a 101st Airborne Division soldier in desert cammies, humping a huge rucksack through the blinding desert; and Elzie Golden’s 2005 evocation of an exhausted grunt sleeping on a cot in Fallujah, surrounded by his gear.

Admission to the center and exhibit will be free for active-duty service members, military retirees and children ages 3 and under, with discounts for other veterans and family members.

Several artists will be on hand to talk about their work.

For information on the exhibit, the center or planning a trip to Philadelphia, visit the Constitution Center’s website.

Show your work

Active-duty service members and veterans from all services can submit artwork reflecting their time of service to an online gallery the National Constitution Center is launching in conjunction with the Art of the American Soldier exhibition. Military artists who make a submission will have the opportunity to show their work via computer kiosk inside the exhibition. Electronic submissions in JPG format up to 2 megabytes can be made by clicking here.