
Advertisement

Michael Fay: A war artist is simply an artist who goes to war. People understand landscape painters and portrait artists, but they have a hard time wrapping their heads around the idea that there are still artists who go to war to make art. In the past, a lot of artists went to war. Manet did it in the French commune during the Franco-Prussian war; Goya witnessed what the French did in the Napoleonic Wars in Spain; John Singer Sargent went to WWI on behalf of the British. Many well-known American artists went off and directly or indirectly did art during WWI, and especially during WWII. All the service branches had big combat art programs right up until the end of Vietnam. Pretty much anyone who has taken Art History 101 knows that the basis for most art is war—whether it was the Romans, the Babylonians, the Greeks, or many others.Why has war art in the US declined since Vietnam?
You know, I don’t know. A lot of cultural institutions, whether it’s universities or museums, are just waking up to the fact that here we are ten years into this, our longest war, and the culture has essentially sat it out. That is why I, and some of my friends in the Society of War Artists are trying to make it more public.
Advertisement


The first time you ever go sketch a guy missing a major part of his face or body you think to yourself, “How am I going to respond to this?” But once you’re with these guys you realize, “This is not an image. This is a real person.” The light is still in their eyes. They are still in the fight. They’re completely alive and engaged. You can’t help but leave the room and think these people are more alive than most of us. These are people doing real stuff. They’re not taking life for granted. They’re taking what they have and using it fully. Some of these guys have only two stubs, but they’ll use those two stubs in ways that will blow your mind.How do the wounded servicemen react when they see your portraits of them?
Universally, they’re like, “Hey, have at it, I’m glad you’re here.” They’re not going to hide. They’re way past being put off by stuff the rest of us are put off by. These people are exceptional, and part of that exceptionality is that they don’t see themselves that way. These are guys who are 23, maybe 25. In our culture, we don’t see people in their 30s as adults. How did we get to the point where we are calling people in their 20s kids? My generation fought to be able to vote at 18. It was like, “We’re going to war, let us vote.” This generation hasn’t stepped up to the plate and no one has made them step up.
Advertisement
Oh, no. Guys in the fight are in it. That is part of developing this warrior culture. People who go into the service now—they know they’re going to fight. It doesn’t matter if you’re National Guard or regular Marines, you’re gonna go. And you’re gonna go more than once. Within the tribe of the military, even with all the wounds and PTSD and everything else, the morale is unbelievably high.















