Making Meaning, one of the keynote exhibitions at the first Veteran Art Summit and Triennial in 2019, presented a survey of veteran art that addressed the complexities of war and military service, while challenging the perception that veterans and service members are the only people who can understand these experiences. In the essay “Making Meaning with Recurring Creative Tactics: The Political Implications of Veteran Art” curator Aaron Hughes argues that the featured artists make violence and loss tangible, inviting viewers to witness, acknowledge—perhaps even experience for themselves—these traumas. Ultimately, the artists demonstrated that war is a social issue that all people must work to understand and address.
“Making Meaning with Recurring Creative Tactics: The Political Implications of Veteran Art” is the sixth essay republished by the emerging Veteran Art Movement from the National Veterans Art Museum Triennial & Veteran Art Summit Resource Guide.
Jacob Lawrence, Family: Hiroshima, 1983
MAKING MEANING WITH RECURRING CREATIVE TACTICS: THE POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF VETERAN ART
By Aaron Hughes MAKING MEANING Curator, May 2019
Featured Artists: Richard Yohnka, Jacob Lawrence, David Keefe, Leo McStravick, Richard Olsen, Jessica Putnam-Phillips, Matthew Deibel, Ulysses Marshall, Ken Hruby, Rick Bartow, Monty Little Jack Levine, Jasper Johns, Randolph Harmes, Kelly Carter, H.C. Westermann (Horace Clifford “Cliff” Westermann), Jesse Albrecht, Amber Hoy, Otto Dix, Robert Morris, Michael Kelley, Ralph Arnold, Michael Kelley, Mary Louise Sorrin, Cleveland Wright, Richard Olsen, & Amber Hoy
… If art purports to register the true experience of violence or devastating loss — to be about a particular event — then it lays claim to an experience that is fundamentally owned by someone… [and] invites a wider audience to partake of this experience in some way. — Jill Bennett, Empathic Vision (2005)
Making Meaning presents a survey of veteran art, from World War I to the Global War on Terror, from representations of subjective experiences to political provocations. These works express the overall vision of the NVAM Triennial: [they] address the complications and complexities of war and military service, while challenging the perception that veterans and service members are the only people who can understand these experiences. The featured artists investigate and express topics of violence, devastating loss and trauma—pain and suffering that is often thought to be indescribable, or beyond language and representation. They take viewers into this perceived void of understanding, transforming the ineffable into imagery, forms, symbols and language that is recognizable, yet doesn’t rely on reference points found in everyday life. Across generations, veteran artists have made violence and loss tangible, inviting viewers to witness, acknowledge—perhaps even experience for themselves—these traumas. The artists ultimately demonstrate that war is a social issue that all people must work to understand and address.
Veteran artist Ash Kyrie has said that the reason he makes work (and perhaps why many veterans make work) is not for his own personal healing but, rather, for the viewer’s and society’s healing. Currently there are many art programs and projects focused on “healing veterans.” These programs usually focus on veterans’ subjective experiences, with an understanding that self-expression can help veterans salve their psychological wounds. However, historic and contemporary art discourses have often framed art made about traumatic experiences very differently. In Empathetic Vision: Affect, Trauma, and Contemporary Art Jill Bennett writes, “[…] Visual art presents trauma as a political rather than subjective phenomenon. It does not offer us a privileged view of an inner subject; rather, by giving trauma extension in space […] it invites […] awareness […].” Making Meaning is ultimately an invitation to awareness, to highlight the history of veteran creative practices which address the political implications of trauma.
Another passage from Empathetic Vision is instructive for understanding these veteran artworks: “[…] Trauma is classically defined as beyond the scope of language and representation; hence, an imagery of trauma might not readily conform to logic of representation.” Testing the “logic of representation,” viewers entering the Making Meaning exhibition space first encounter three generations of veteran artists, from the print series Hiroshima (1983) by World War II veteran Jacob Lawrence, to Vietnam War veteran Richard Yohnka’s paintings Shell Game (1983) and Arcade Barker (1983), to Iraq War veteran David Keefe’s painting The King of the World (2016). Each of these works plays with the representational spaces they present, adding surreal elements to express the trauma of violence and loss. For example, Lawrence responds to the atomic destruction of Hiroshima with sympathetic renderings of doomed figures caught in the moment of the “noiseless flash.” The figures — skull-faced, almost monster-like and void of any specific identifying characteristics — are presented in everyday spaces, e.g. “Playground” and “Market.” Lawrence’s faceless figures represent the way war takes life indiscriminately, especially affecting civilians. In almost the same color palette as Lawrence’s series, Yohnka repeats this tactic of using monster-like figures to depict war’s false choices — or the absurdity of chance — with a beastheaded figure hosting a “shell game.” The beast’s expression of terror and aggression is echoed by Keefe’s tyrannosaurus rex in The King of the World, with its mortar-infused legs looming over a fearful soldier.
Intergenerational themes and connections like these continue throughout Making Meaning. Viewers see the repetition of specific creative tactics used to visualize, externalize and socialize traumatic memories. Ultimately, these tactics highlight the political implications of trauma caused by war and military service.
Amber Hoy, Spilt Milk, 2015
Repeating Symbols (Skulls & Targets)
Lawrence’s use of skulls to symbolize the deaths of his doomed subjects is a tactic repeated by Vietnam veteran Rick Bartow in A view across the river for V. Vet and his heart attack because he couldn’t talk and no one would listen anyway (1987). Vietnam veteran Randolph Harmes also incorporates the skull symbol in Ritual Suicide Mask (1979). In each of these works (featured in Making Meaning’s second gallery) the subjects’ tortured faces are dissolved into skulls. Predating these works is World War II veteran and American pop artist Jasper Johns’ Skull (1973), a print edition using the same graphic symbol. In a more cynical gesture, Michael Kelley’s Skull (1978) (featured in the third gallery) presents a realistic rendering of two soldiers holding a skull of their supposed enemy. Beside Kelley’s artwork viewers see Robert Morris’s Untitled (Firestorm) (1982). In this massive charcoal drawing, an abstracted skeleton subject slowly emerges from a black and gray field of gestural marks.
The target symbol, often featuring crosshairs or shot patterns, also frequents the artwork of veterans. Similar to the use of skulls, the target symbol suggests an ominous fate — that of “the targeted.” One example is Stand Solidly Now (1969) by Vietnam veteran and American artist Richard Olsen (featured in the third gallery). With a conceptual twist, Iraq War veteran Amber Hoy’s Entrenched Series, Zero Target Data (2014) uses the back of old practice targets to allude to the process of being trained to kill, with each successive plate representing an improved shot grouping. In this work the target itself is not visible — just a tighter and tighter constellation of bullet holes.
Richard Olsen, Stand Solidly Now, 1964
Collage
Hoy’s Zero Target Data also incorporates collage, representing a layered truth: a soldier’s humanity is questioned as one achieves proficiency in killing. Many veterans have used collage to examine the layered complexities of their military experiences. Korean War veteran Ralph Arnold’s Who You/Yeah Baby (1968) (featured in the third gallery) uses collage to depict military service. Uncle Sam looms large over suggestive male models surrounding him, representing the complexities and tensions of homosexuality in relation to military service (Arnold used collage extensively in his art to show the intersections and layers of identity and politics).
Jessica Putnam-Phillips, Untitled, 2013 - Ongoing
In a similar approach — however through a completely different medium — Air Force veteran Jessica Putnam-Phillips collages decals and drawings in her ongoing series of elaborately decorated ceramic platters Untitled (2013 to —) (featured in the first gallery). She plays off tropes of military service and what she describes as “women’s supposed role in society: to serve.” Similar to Arnold’s work, Putnam-Phillips pushes back on the dominant masculine framework assumed in the military, raising questions about identity and who inhabits different spaces, specifically in relationship to the body. In Black Vets (1983) (featured in the second gallery), Vietnam veteran Ulysses S. Marshall also attempts to alter societal norms and challenge assumptions through collage. Marshall raises questions of who American society considers to be a veteran. His depiction of Black veterans in prison garb positioned in front of prison bars, represents the criminalization of the Black body. Collaged into the painting are military patches and service medals that seem to count for nothing in this instance.
Ulysses Marshall, Black Vets, 1983
Stark Black & White Compositions
The use of monotone and a black and white color palette is another common compositional choice found throughout many of the featured artworks. Perhaps this starkness relates to the striking brutality of war. World War I German veteran Otto Dix’s 1924 print series The War (Der Krieg) (featured in the third gallery) is a prime example. The high contrast, black and white prints dramatize the trenches of World War I, expressing profound destruction and violence. Created almost a century later, Iraq veteran Matthew Deibel’s Sublunary (2015) (featured in the center of the second gallery) is a series of delicate, stark white paper sculptures (human figures) highlighting the fragility and vulnerability of civilians in war. Deibel has remarked that he made the series in response to his involvement in uncovering a mass grave of Iraqi women and children. The stories of its victims were not covered by the media. Aptly, the newspapers that make up the sculptures are bleached, as the victims’ stories have gone untold.
Otto Dix, #16 Corpse in Barbed Wire (Flanders): The War (Der Krieg), 1924
Color & Tension
In contrast to the above monotone artworks, Vietnam veteran Leo McStravick creates tension using color and motion in his composition Falling Airman (1975). Another example of a work in Making Meaning that uses color to create tension is Iraq War veteran Kelly Carter’s Consequences of Another (2016). Carter, working a generation after McStravick, makes use of bright colors and landscape, pulling the viewer into a space of colliding architectures and mountains, confronting them with the horrors of sexual assault in the military. The Count (1978) by Vietnam veteran Michael Kelley incorporates bright red and yellow to bring attention to the three figures in the painting’s foreground. Kelley’s work, which refers to the colloquial expression “down for the count,” raises questions of survivor’s guilt by engaging the viewer with cynical riddles. A foregrounded soldier counts, while a fellow soldier lays face down, mutilated and dead. The featured works by Keefe, Yohnka, and Lawrence (mentioned earlier) also use brilliant colors to create motion and intensify their depictions of loss and violence.
CONCLUSION: Rethinking the Void of Trauma
Making Meaning demonstrates how veteran artists over the past century have intentionally (and unintentionally) repeated creative techniques to connect with viewers and highlight the politics underpinning traumatic memories. While these works certainly ask questions about the subjective nature of military experiences, expressing the violence and devastating loss of war on individuals, they also point toward the responsibility—and culpability—of greater society. As an extension of politics, war and military service are too often separated from everyday civilian experiences. Making Meaning is intended to remind viewers that war affects us all. It is meant to create knowledge and meaning out of veterans’ traumatic memories so society might truly understand war’s wide-reaching impact. This exhibition is not only an invitation to view artworks about war and the military in a new way (many of the more-famous featured works have never before been presented in the context of “veteran art”), but also to learn about the politics and histories that inspired these works. It is meant to further the discourse of intention and purpose within the emerging veteran art movement. Like civilian viewers, practicing veteran artists can learn from the tactics and strategies highlighted in Making Meaning. Veterans can learn about how other veterans have represented and deconstructed their own military experiences, picking up new strategies and techniques. Ultimately, art can be used to expose the irrationality, contradictions and politics of militarism, American exceptionalism and the implications of endless war, while helping us rethink the supposedly ineffable void of veteran trauma.
Otto Dix, #6 Wounded Man (Autumn 1916, Bapaume): The War (Der Krieg) , 1924
MAKING MEANING | List of Works
ROOM 1
Richard Yohnka, American (1957–1997), Army veteran, served in the Vietnam War
Shell Game
Arcade Barker
Circa 1983, Oil on canvas
Jacob Lawrence, American (1917–2000), Coast Guard veteran, served during World War II
Playground: Hiroshima
Street Scene: Hiroshima
Family: Hiroshima
People in the Park: Hiroshima
Market: Hiroshima
Man with Bird: Hiroshima
Boy with Kite: Hiroshima
Farmers: Hiroshima
1983
Eight screenprints on paper
David Keefe, American (b. 1980), Marine Corps veteran, served in the Iraq War
The King of the World, 2016
Oil on canvas
Leo McStravick, American (b. 1943), Navy veteran, served in the Vietnam War
Falling Airman, 1975
Oil on canvas
Richard Olsen, American (b. 1935), Army veteran, served in the Vietnam War
The Fall , 1964
Etching
Jessica Putnam-Phillips, American (b. 1973), Air Force veteran, served in the Middle East
Untitled, 2013 - Ongoing
Ceramic
ROOM 2
Matthew Deibel, American (b. 1980), Marine Corps veteran, served in the Iraq War
Sublunary, 2015
Sculpted handmade paper
Ulysses Marshall, American (b. 1946), Army veteran, served in the Vietnam War
Black Vets, 1983
Mixed media
Motherless Child, 1983
Acrylic and crayon on paper
Ken Hruby, American (b.1938), Army veteran, served in the Vietnam War War
Trophy, 1993
Sculpted wood
Rick Bartow, American (1946–2016), Army veteran, served in the Vietnam War
A view across the river for V. Vet, and his heart attack because he couldn’t talk and no one would listen anyway, 1987
Oil pastel on paper
Monty Little (b. 1983), Marine Corps veteran, served in the Iraq War
Usurp: Lincoln II, 2015
Monoprint on paper
Jack Levine, American (1915–2010), Army veteran, served in World War II
Warsaw Ghetto, 1969
Lithograph
Jasper Johns, American (b. 1930), Army veteran, served during the Korean
War Skull, 1973
Screenprint
Randolph Harmes, American (b. 1944), Army veteran, served in the Vietnam War
Ritual Suicide Mask, 1979,
Wood, gauze, and paint
Kelly Carter, American (b. 1986) Army veteran, served in the Afghanistan and Iraq War
Consequence of Another, 2016
Oil on canvas
H.C. Westermann (Horace Clifford “Cliff” Westermann) American (1922 - 1981), Marine Corps veteran, served in World War II
Port of Shadows, 1967
Lithograph
ROOM 3
Jesse Albrecht, American (b. 1977), National Guard veteran, served in the Iraq War
Abu G & Me & Jail
Dog
Pray for Peace
2005 - 2006
High-fired ceramic
Amber Hoy, American (b. 1986), Army veteran, served in the Iraq War
Spilt Milk, 2015,
Inkjet print
Otto Dix, German (1891–1969), German Army veteran, served in World War I
#6 Wounded Man (Autumn 1916, Bapaume): The War (Der Krieg)
#12 Shock Troops Advance Under Gas: The War (Der Krieg)
#14 Resting Company: The War (Der Krieg)
#16 Corpse in Barbed Wire (Flanders): The War (Der Krieg)
#19 Dance of Death 1917 (Dead Man Heights): The War (Der Krieg)
#26 Dying Soldier: The War (Der Krieg)
1924
Selection from a portfolio of 51 etching, aquatint, and drypoint prints
Robert Morris, American (1931–2018), Army Corps of Engineers veteran, served during the Korean War
Untitled (Firestorm), 1982
Charcoal, ink, graphite, and airbrushed pigment on paper
Michael Kelley, American (1946–2011), Army veteran, served in the Vietnam War
Skull, 1978,
Graphite on paper
Ralph Arnold, American (1928–2006), Army veteran, served in the Korean War
Who You/Yeah Baby, 1968
Collage and acrylic on canvas
Michael Kelley, American (1946 - 2011), Army veteran, served in the Vietnam War
The Count, 1978
Oil on canvas
Mary Louise Sorrin (b. 1946), Army veteran, served in the Vietnam War
Tender Touch, Circa 1990
Watercolor on paper
Cleveland Wright, American (1931 - 1992), Air Force veteran, served in the Vietnam War
We Regret to Inform You, 1979
Oil on canvas
Richard Olsen, American (b. 1935), Army veteran, served in the Vietnam War
Stand Solidly Now, 1969
Etching
Amber Hoy, American (b. 1986), Army veteran, served in the Iraq War
Entrenched Series, Zero Target Data, 2014
Screen print on paper targets
Learn more about the Triennial and Veteran Art Summit here.
Download the Triennial & Veteran Art Summit Resource Guide here.