Through Their Own Eyes: Exhibit at the National Constitution Center Highlights Military Experience in Art Works by American Soldiers

By Catherine J. Barrier

It is what Renée Klish, the Army Curator for many years, calls, “The most famous collection nobody’s ever heard of.”

It may come as a surprise to many to learn that all branches of the military have art programs.  It is not what one first thinks of when thinking of the military, but the men and women who serve in the armed forces live a very different life, and this weekend, their world goes on display at the National Constitution Center, in Philadelphia, in an exhibit entitled Art of the American Soldier.

"War and Peace" by Peter Hurd - WWII, 1942

“[The art in this exhibit] is really amazing!” said Stephanie Reyer, the Director of Exhibitions at the National Constitution Center.  “The collection shows every aspect of the soldier’s life.  It captures camp life, eating, praying, resting, even shaving.  [Some works] reflect their sacrifice—physical and psychological.  [Others show] the aftermath of battles.  It’s really the whole experience of the soldier, as seen by those who’ve lived it.”

This exhibit, which was put together by the National Constitution Center, with the U.S. Army Center of Military History and the National Museum of the U.S. Army, includes more than 200 pieces of art work, arranged not chronologically but thematically.  “It’s laid out to reflect the soldier’s experience—life, duty, sacrifice,” said Reyer.  “The juxtaposition of pieces from all these wars allows viewers to see things they might not otherwise see, such as how the morning ritual was similar, how there were some advances in technology, how styles have changed, and even how painting changed over time—and how [art] styles influenced each other.”

“When a soldier takes his or her family to the museum, I want them to be able to say ‘That’s what it looked like; that’s what I did; that’s where I was’,” said Martin Cervantez, the Army Artist in Residence and the Combat Artist for the Exhibit.

The Art of the American Soldier will open at the National Constitution Center, located at 525 Arch Street, in Philadelphia, on September 24^th and run through January 10, 2011.  The Center is open Mon.-Fri. 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sat. 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Sun. 12:00 noon to 5 p.m.  The exhibit is FREE with admission to the museum.  Adults: $12; Seniors (65+), Youth (13-18), and Students with ID: $11; Children (4-12): $8; Active military personnel and career military retirees with ID are free, as are children 3 and under.  iPOD audio tours cost an additional $5.  Parking is available at the Center: $5-$17, depending on length of stay.  The garage entrance is located on Race Street between 5^th and 6^th Streets.  For more information, see http://www.constitutioncenter.org/.

“It’s actually a lot of serendipity,” said Stephanie Reyer, speaking about how the idea for this exhibit first came about.  She had watched CBS Sunday Morning on November 15, 2009 and learned about this hidden art collection the Army had.  Immediately, she was excited about it and thought it would make a great exhibit at the National Constitution Center.  When she got to work the next day, others were talking about it, too, so she contacted the Center of Military History, the division of the Army responsible for the art collection, and they were very gracious.  They allowed her to go look at the art—in December—and were eager to work with her to put it on display.

“The Army hasn’t really had a National Museum of the American Soldier, a major venue of its own to have the work shown in,” said Martin Cervantez.  “They’re working on gathering funds for one in the future.”

“[This art] hasn’t been sitting in the basement by design,” said Reyer.  “The Army had the collection, and we had the resources to show it.”

“It wasn’t even a question for us,” said Reyer.  “It just seemed like a natural fit.  Since the Center focuses on the Constitution, why not focus on the men and women who have served to defend it—to have the opportunity to have them tell the story, through their eyes.”



"Combat Artist at Work" by Paul Rickert -
Vietnam, 1966

  The Army started commissioning artists to document Army life during WWI.  At that time, there were 8 captains in the Army Corps of Engineers sent out to show through art what they saw—bridges, roadways, and other things.  By WWII, the Army had 42 artists in the field capturing scenes of Army life.  The funding for this program was then cut in 1943, and there was no official art program during the Korean War (although some art pieces from this war are in the collection, having been donated by individual artists, found in various places, or later purchased on E-bay by Renee Klish).  By the time of the Vietnam War, the Army had combat art teams, of three to five soldiers, artistically capturing everyday life in the Army.  Today, there is an Army Staff Artist, Martin Cervantez, who documents what the soldiers serving our country see, hear, and live.  Cervantez will hold that position until he retires.

“I try to [capture life in the military] in a really generalized way—to capture the experience not limited to infantry, or aviation, or . . . but in general, for all soldiers to be able to identify with it,” said Cervantez.  Some of his art works that aim to do this feature soldiers pulling patrol.  One particular piece, “Tailgating over the Valley”, depicts two soldiers riding on the back of a CH-47 Shinook (the name of a Native American Indian tribe) helicopter.  There are silhouettes of the rear of the aircraft, and on the horizon, there are mountains in the background.  “Most of the people in Afghanistan travel by air because of the mines,” said Cervantez.  “I wanted to capture that.  I remember doing it.”

“The soldiers, they understand the gear they wore, the equipment they used, where they were, and those [soldiers] who’ve seen the [art] works have said ‘It’s pretty much dead on’,” said Cervantez.  “They can really identify with it.”

“I go out to wherever they send me, take photos, and come back in the studio and create the art,” said Cervantez.

Some of the combat artists in the past included Peter Verrazano, who served in the First Gulf War, and Bil Keane, the author of the Family Circus cartoon who served in the Pacific during WWII.

But the Army’s art collection also includes art work done by civilian artists, as well as the Life Magazine collection and the Abbott collection, both donated to the Army over the years.



"Bob Hope Entertaining Troops Somewhere in England"
by Floyd Davis - WWII, 1943


“The Army has been collecting this art work for quite some time,” said Cervantez.  In fact, some of the Army’s more than 15,000 pieces of art date back to the Revolutionary War.

“What we did [in the exhibit], because it was about the soldiers, we tried to reunite ‘voices’ (actual Army veterans) from each of the specific wars, missions, operations,” said Reyer.  “For instance, military personnel from the Panama operation, from Rowanda, from peace time operations, from Hurricane Andrew, from the 1980’s, [and from] ‘Reforger’ training exercises.”

“We also have audio tours in our exhibition,” said Reyer.  For these, veterans from all branches of the military were shown the art work and then responded to it on tape.  “They all have phenomenal stories!”

“The American soldier part, focusing on the face—on portraits—captures the men and women bearing the brunt of it all,” said Reyer, referring to their sacrifice to maintain our freedom and safeguard our way of life, as outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

"Landing Zone" by John Wehrle -
Vietnam, 1966

The exhibit also includes a theater piece, Through Their Eyes, which will be shown twice an hour Wednesday through Saturday between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. and between 12:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. on Sundays.  This profound theater piece tells the stories of soldier artists on the front line.

The U.S. Constitution is the oldest and shortest written constitution in the world, and few people realize that the first national “Thanksgiving Day”, established by George Washington on November 26, 1789, was created to “give thanks” for the Constitution.

The National Constitution Center, the museum in Philadelphia “dedicated to increasing awareness about the Constitution and its relevance in Americans’ daily lives” is the result of more than 100 years of planning.  A memorial to that great document of freedom was first proposed in 1887, at the centennial of the Constitution.  Little was done to realize the proposed plan for the next century, but on September 16, 1988, then President Ronald Reagan signed the “Constitution Heritage Act of 1988”, establishing that “a national center for educating, studying, and interpreting the Constitution” was to be build in Philadelphia, near Independence Hall.

Construction of the Center, an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization, began on September 17, 2000, on the 213^th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution.  The location of  525 Arch Streetwas chosen because it was on May 25, 1787 that the Constitutional Convention began (in Independence Hall) in Philadelphia.  The building is made of American products, including Indiana limestone, and has been the site of several debates, town hall meetings, and political events over the past few years.  The Center annually celebrates Constitution Day on September 17.

The museum’s permanent exhibit has over 100 exhibits, film, photographs, texts, sculpture, and artifacts, and the Center has a restaurant, the Delegates’ Café, and a Museum Store.

At the National Constitution Center, visitors are first introduced to the Philadelphia of 1787—to the people, ideas, and time of the Constitutional Convention, when Philadelphia was America’s largest city.

Next, “Freedom Rising”, in the Center’s Kimmel Theater, is a state-of-the-art multimedia theater experience, which delivers a 17-minute production that orients visitors to the Center’s experience and tells the story of “We the People” and the story of the U.S. Constitution.  It explores how the basic American principle of “popular sovereignty” shaped our nation’s history, and attests to the importance of active citizenship. 

The American Experience, on the 2^nd floor, highlights people and ideas, all presented in an architecturally unusual—for a museum—circular gallery.  There are three pathways through The Story of We the People.  On the outer wall, the historical story of “We the People” is told.  The central pathway, the Preamble Path, is about the Constitution today and how it works.  And the third pathway is along the inside wall and asks visitors to comment on a series of questions about war, justice, and other significant issues.

Signers’ Hall houses 42 life-like bronze statues of the delegates working on the final version of this key historical document, each based on portraits and written descriptions of the actual appearances of these men—with the exception of Jacob Broom, whose face is partially covered because no specific information about his appearance had been found.  The room has the exact dimensions of the Assembly Room in Independence Hall, where the delegates met, and is styled to resemble that room.  A rare, first printing of the U.S. Constitution is on display in a side alcove.  It took 18 months and 50 artists to produce the statues in this room, and although 55 delegates attended the Constitutional Convention in 1787, only 39 actually signed the document on September 17, 1787; the other three remaining delegates, dissenting, chose not to do so.

.

The National Constitution Center also houses the Annenberg Center for Education and Outreach, which offers educational programming and provides study resources.  For this Art of the American Soldier exhibit, the Annenberg Center is developing a variety of programs.  See http://www.constitutioncenter.org/.

“We don’t typically have art exhibits,” said Reyer.  “We hope this exhibit will also draw artists in [to see these specific examples of art].”

“[The art work] is incredibly relevant now,” said Reyer.  “It’s not just history, as we’re [currently] engaged in [several ‘theaters’ worldwide].”

“I think and hope the same way the exhibit opened conversation for staff [at the Center] it will for family and friends [among the viewing public],” said Reyer.

“I think there’s a large portion of the population in the country that is interested in the military and in military history—and many have someone in their family who’s served, and so I think they’d all be interested [in seeing this collection],” said Cervantez.

Whether one’s specifically interested in the military or not, especially as Americans, it is important for us to realize the sacrifices made by others that enable us to continue to live free.  And the best way to do that is to view what they experience through their own eyes.

* Photos Courtesy of the National Constitution Center

© 2010 by Catherine J. Barrier.  All rights reserved.