Consequences of War

The choice to move from war artist George Lambert’s self-assured self-portrait, and this dramatic painting of a returned veteran from the Afghan war is deliberate on my part. So is the choice of black and white. Colour tends to mesmerise, and here I want you to focus on all the elements in my composition. At the top left hand corner the face of Brett Whiteley appears to be taking a peek at the naked soldier in Ben Quilty’s stunning and moving 2012 portrait of Captain “S”. www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/artboards/archie-100/what-lies-...

 

The Brett Whiteley cameo is from his own triptych which we’ll come to later. But Quilty’s choice of thick paint (you must enlarge this) applied with a palette knife creates a disturbing sense of a body that is at once still alive, but also in many ways already a corpse. There is no doubt here that contemporary war artist Ben Quilty is addressing head-on the issue of PTSD and the depravities of this pointless modern war.

 

Another artist I highly recommend in this regard is Quilty's colleague in Afghanistan, George Gittoes. Listen to him tell these incredible stories: www.youtube.com/watch?v=714QAXRllp4

Gittoes' book, "Blood Mystic", is truly an example of how art from war zones can change lives.

 

Remember the ignominious end of the Aghan war recently with the clumsy American withdrawal? Well guess who’s back in power in Kabul now? It was clearly Vietnam 2.0, and like then, our government followed the USA down this ridiculous rabbit-hole, all in the name of keeping the Military-Industrial Complex making profits (a term coined by the conservative President and former General Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s as he tried to warn us of what was happening). Don’t get me started on 9/11.

 

Let me be completely inflammatory now, since this is the only weapon I have to fight these Masters of War (that Bob Dylan so wonderfully eviscerated!): The war in Ukraine now threatens to escalate to World War 3. You are aware by now I hope that the US Congress has spent over $100 Billion on Ukraine already in what is clearly a proxy war with Russia. Where have we seen such a proxy war before? Well Vietnam of course. History repeats and the casualties of war include not just the innocent civilians, but the tens of thousands of soldiers who die, and those like Captain “S” who return home the living dead, spurned as lepers by their own country and many taking their own lives. It’s a damnable disgrace!

 

Am I angry? You are damn right I am. There’s a special place in Hell reserved for those who profit from war. As Dylan put it so magnificently when he wrote about Vietnam (but really every war):

 

“Come you masters of war

You that build the big guns

You that build the death planes

You that build all the bombs

You that hide behind walls

You that hide behind desks

I just want you to know

I can see through your masks…

 

And I hope that you die

And your death will come soon

I'll follow your casket

By the pale afternoon

And I'll watch while you're lowered

Down to your deathbed

And I'll stand over your grave

'Til I'm sure that you're dead.”

Done