Art or Propaganda? Symposium at the War Museum

What kind of people are war artists? Why are they taking the risks of war to work as embedded artists in the Canadian troops? Are they devoted to the military? Do the want to create propaganda? These were the questions that drove me to attend the symposium "Military Art Now" at the War Museum on Thursday.

To be honest: I was expecting to see more propaganda than art, more military personnel than civilians, more devotion to military than criticism. But I was completely surprised by the outcome and it seems that I have to rethink my prejudices!

What I learned first, is the fact that The Canadian Forces Artists Program (CFAP) does not mean that artists really stay at the front lines and depict battles. Indeed, Karole Marois e.g. was visiting a Canadian Military Base in Harskamp, Netherlands. She attended parades for the 60 years anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands by the Canadian troops and depicted these parades on canvasses that look like gravestones, reminding the fallen soldiers.

Karole Marois

Karole was strongly impressed by the endless graveyards of fallen soldiers that she visited during her stay in the Netherlands. And she also attended parades that were highly attended with cheering people who are still grateful for the Canadian military.

For the background: CFAP selects artists every two years to develop a body of work which will "allow Canadian artists the opportunity to record Canada's soldiers in Canada and around the world". That's the mandate. I was also not aware of the fact that the selected artist in the program are not paid, they work on a volunteer basis and just the expenses are covered. Their artworks are owned by the artists; but acquisitions from museums might be considered.

I was also impressed by the artist Karen Bailey who is represented in the current War Museum exhibition "Brush with War" with a self-portrait that shows her with a army helmet and sunglasses (see my posting). During her talk, she made clear that this selection was not her first choice because she worried that this self-portrait could be mistaken as a kind of support for the military. Instead, she did not want to go to Afghanistan in first place, but she finally decided to go the depict the work of medical personnel at a military hospital in Kandahar.

Karen Bailey

 Scott Waters emphasized that he - as a civilian artist - was interested in the military; that's why he applied for the program. During his involvement with India Coy., Second Battalion of The Royal Canadian Regiment in 2006, he was confronted with the contradictions of war art and propaganda; but he mentioned that he was given free range in the motives and topics he choose. His self-portrait shows him in a tank and fright is clearly visible. He also mentioned that there was a distance between the embedded artists and the soldiers.

Scott Waters

This distance was non-existent for Kevin Goligher and David Collier, because they were soldiers first and later became artists. Therefore the symposium provided a broad spectrum of artists with different backgrounds. Artists who gave short presentations of their works in the morning: Dick Averns, David Collier, Kevin Goligher, Gertrude Kearns, Erin Riley, Ian Wall and Scott Waters. In the afternoon Karen Bailey, Karole Marois, Bill MacDonnell and Sharon McKay gave 20 minutes lectures about their approaches. The War Museum will upload parts of the lectures on uTube; unfortunately I could not find it there today.