Posted on 06/19/2005 8:20:00 PM PDT by dufekin
Because we can win triumph without it.
Howard Christy was a World War ONE artist. Note the earlier Navy uniform. The pretty girl probably dates from around 1917 or 1918.
Yes. The woman in the painting represents a passenger of the Lusitania. The painting was requested up thread.
But did you recognize the Thomas Hart Benton of Hirohito "behold a sower went forth to sow"?
Some very good artists participated in the war effort back then. Where are they now?
There is some beautiful art in those posters, professor. On a lot of levels.
I suppose one reason we don't see much of that kind of thing at the moment is that most artists consider themselves part of the Left, which places America in the category of evil.
I took a painting class last year at the local university - the last day of class was capped with a slide show which featured some of the professor's work. The last thing he showed was his protest against the Iraq war. Of course he was protesting the suffering we caused the Iraqis by freeing them from Saddam, not the suffering caused by Saddam or by the radical Islamists.
Sad thing was that the prof is a truly nice person and a good painter. Of course, in true 60's fashion, he didn't really teach too much, though the critiques were fun.
The young lady in the "Gee I wish I were a man" poster is a classic "Christy girl". She was as famous in her day as the "Gibson girl", who predated her slightly.
Is that by Thomas Hart Benton? It certainly looks like his style.
I don't know for a FACT that it's Benton, but I'd bet a steak dinner on it. His style is absolutely unmistakeable, and pretty hard to imitate (Jackson Pollock for one was totally unable to do so.)
It is, in fact, Benton.
I'm a fan of his work, especially his commentary on Prohibition and Sacco and Vanzetti (although I disagree with him completely on the guilty/innocence of those two).
Most people today, dont even realize that we are in a war, and no one, over here, seems to be affected by it, or care about it, either.
We need to secure our borders as we did in the 1940's, etc.
If you dont get the average public person involved, and interested in the war as they were in 1942, then you will lose support for the war, and you will lose it.
I agree, but who is to blame for that though? 9/11 should be worth almost a lifetime of good propaganda, but our government seems to be content to not even talk about it anymore.
When directly asked a couple of years ago what the American people can do to contribute, the administration's response basically boiled down to "go shopping and don't worry your pretty little heads about anything".
In ww2, everyone was involved, and everyone felt a part of the war even on the homefront. We all shared in sacrificing to win the war.
One of the big problems with vietnam, was that no one over here really cared about the war, with a guns and butter policy. Johnsons big mistake was to allow americans over here to not be invovled in the war, and bush is making the same mistake. if you are not involved, then eventually you dont care anymore.
Until and unless average citizens over here feel a part of the war effort, then why should there be continuing support for it?
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Thanks for the link! His style really is unmistakable.
Re: the Ben Shahn, I should have caught that in the "French Workers" one.
The infamous duo from Dedham . . .
He was a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania, very much a radicalized Socialist (even pro-anarchist) in the old European mold. He severely criticized America in his art, not just Sacco & Vanzetti and Prohibition but in many other works.
Yet when the chips were down and the U.S. was at war, he stepped up and helped with the war effort.
How many frankly Socialist artists today would step up to the plate like that?
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