Montage 2008
In the Crosshairs: Intersections of Art and War

Pika-Don and Motion Pictures: The Atomic in Film

Katherine Gabele Douglass, Michigan State University

This paper seeks to explore two artistic, cinematic representations of the atomic legacy in post-war Japan. Hiroshima mon amour (1959) directed by New Wave French artist Alain Resnais and Rhapsody in August (1991) directed by renowned Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa thematically and visually rely on the “present” in atomically-affected Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Each film, though compositionally dissimilar, discusses in effect the same questions: how are the aftereffects of nuclear warfare artistically represented? How can trauma and survivor knowledge be represented by the cinematic medium? What is the role of the film artist in the atomic age?

‘This tragedy still continues’: Esteban Vicente, Robert Motherwell, and the Spanish Civil War

Daniel Haxall, The Pennsylvania State University

In 1936, General Francisco Franco seized control of Spain, sparking an intense civil war that triggered responses from artists across the world. Largely forgotten, however, was the reaction of the New York School’s only Spanish member, Esteban Vicente. Stranded in Madrid as the war began, he became involved with the Republican cause. After fleeing to New York, Vicente struggled to negotiate the war in Spain, becoming Vice Consul for the Republic while creating artworks to raise funds for Spanish refugees. Within this context, his abstractions evoke the traumatic experiences of Spain while celebrating the eventual fall of Fascism.

Calamity and War Photography: Persuading the Ideal Viewer

Elizabeth Holland, University of Illinois at Chicago

Nick Ut’s photograph of victim Kim Phuc running from a napalm-dowsed Vietnam village informed civilians of the cruelties of war. An image of Sabrina Harmon with a dead Iraqi at Abu Ghraib achieved the same end; however, each of these images was intended for a different audience. This paper theorizes that war photographs are complex visual constructs used to persuade viewing audiences. Photographers approach picture-making with viewer position in mind, and conceptualize impressions that relay specific meaning or value. For the photojournalist and documentarian, this approach -- when morally and professionally maintained -- produces time-honored photographs that often signify and summarize historic eras, however, when photographs reach unintended audiences, viewers must re-position themselves, or their cultural assumptions and carefully analyze information they are presented.

Civil Rights in Popular Prints: Kurz and Allison’s Civil War Series

Barbaranne E. Mocella Liakos, The University of Iowa

In the last few decades of the nineteenth century the Chicago-based lithographic firm of Kurz and Allison produced thirty-six chromolithographs depicting battles from the recent American Civil War. Five of these images depict African Americans; and four of the five give black figures a central role in the action. Through their Civil War portrayals of blacks as strong, resilient, capable soldiers and civilians more than twenty years after the battles took place, Kurz and Allison demonstrated their belief that African Americans should be awarded civil rights equal to those of their countrymen.

Envisioning Kokoschka: Considering the Artist’s Political Allegories, 1939-1954

Melody Maxted, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Reacting to socio-political decline in Europe, the German Expressionist Oskar Kokoschka believed he could remedy it by painting subjects related to the follies of war. Believing that the paintings dealt with the most salient characteristics of cultural decline, the artist hoped they would be catalysts for change. The present examination traces Kokoschka’s moralizing ideology from the years immediately before World War II through the 1950s by considering Kokoschka’s better known, war-year political allegories alongside two of his post-war polyptychs. Though the later works are not usually understood has having overt political content, they actually maintain the artist’s intent to incite change with his art.

The Battle of Shiloh Cyclorama: A Biased Commemoration

Rachel Stephens, The University of Iowa

In the 1880s, cycloramas posed a realistic means of memorializing the Civil War on a monumental format that was extremely popular. However, as might be expected, these paintings did not give equal footing to Union and Confederate troops. This paper provides a case study of one particular Civil War cyclorama, commemorating the Battle of Shiloh. By investigating the work’s specific details it is clear that this was a biased work which praised the Union soldiers, while denigrating those from the South. This paper discusses these details and the painting’s larger implications on United States history.