[MSN] Artists at War

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Artists at War
By Charles Sabba
Rahway News Record
Mar 22, 2007


   We are at war, this is no secret. I want to make it clear that I
consider myself a political realist and am neither for nor against this
war, I only want the ends to justify the means (but do the ends ever
justify the means?). I have to admit that I was very hopeful at the
start of the Iraqi invasion that the Kurdish people, whom I have had a
profound interest in since I met many of them in Turkey during the
early 1990s, would finally establish a state of their own. I also
wanted to see the Iraqi Shiites finally get a fair shake. As a military
veteran and an artist though, I have come to the conclusion that
artists belong at their easels and studios, not in the trenches.
Artists are creators, not destroyers. In the past artists at war have
done quite negatively, here I will introduce you to a few of the many
examples of this.
   The Impressionist painter Claude Monet joined the 1st Regiment of
African Light Calvary and served in Algeria in 1860. After seeing the
Romantic paintings of N. Africa by artists such as Delacroix, Monet
believed this experience would inspire his art. Instead, his art career
was halted and his artistic voice silenced. After serving two years of
a seven year enlistment, Monet caught Typhoid. An influential family
member agreed to pull strings to get Monet an early discharge, as long
as he promised to take academic art classes.
   Another shining star of the Impressionists, Frederic Bazille,
volunteered for the Regiment of the Zouaves after the Franco-Prussian
War broke out in 1870. Bazille was killed in action at age 29 in
Beaunne-la-Rolande, Loiret. It was a terrible loss for Monet and the
Impressionist group and they were stricken by grief.
    One the eve of WWI, many of the artists and poets of the Paris artist
colonies were whipping themselves up into a patriotic fervor, getting
drunk and toasting victory for France. They marched off to defend
France despite the fact that many were foreigners.
    Guillaume Apollinaire proudly marched off in uniform and poetically
placed a flower in the barrel of his rifle. He fought bravely and
never complained about the conditions in the trenches (but did
complain about the paper pushers who talked too much and acted very
little, which is usually the case in dangerous jobs). A piece of
shrapnel from a 150 mm bullet struck the poet in his head and entered
his right temple. When he returned to civilian life, decorated with
the cross of war, he was never the same again. He was no longer the
cheerful, jovial, romantic poet and complained of headaches and
dizziness. The war lasted 27 months and Apollinaire died from
complications of this wound exactly 27 months after he was struck by
the shrapnel. The world lost a genius.
     Another great poet, Swiss born Blaise Cendrars, joined the French
army the day after Germany declared war. At first the war experience
inspired his poetry, but that soon faded. Cendrars was struck in his
hand by a shell and lost his right arm. The Polish born painter Moise
Kisling was stabbed by a bayonet while fighting in the same regiment
as Cendrars. Both heroes were awarded the cross of war and French
Citizenship.
   Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were inseparable friends.
Unfortunately they were separated when Picasso showed Braque to the
train station as he left for war. The two painters had championed
cubism and forged new avant-garde heights. Braque went off to the front
as a 2nd lieutenant. He suffered a head wound and was trepanned. Braque
was never the same man after the war and neither was the friendship he
shared with Picasso.
   The Spaniard Picasso refused to enter the war, and since Spain was
neutral, the artist was not obligated to do so. The women in the
streets of Paris handed out flowers to young men who were not wearing
uniforms as an insult. Picasso shrugged this insult off nonchalantly;
after all, he was an artist and a lover, not a fighter, and certainly
did not have trouble with the ladies, uniform or no uniform. Picasso
did however hold rank.  Apollinaire appointed him the rank of “General
of Cubism”. Who can mock a general?
    General Picasso and the cubists can actually be credited for inventing
camouflage techniques. In 1915, the French Ministry of War gave
permission to a painter named Lucien de Scevola to gather a team of
cubist artists, architects and theatrical set designers that could
hide military equipment by effectively manipulating colors and shapes.
Georges Braque participated in this mission. They baited enemy
aviators by painting false canons, which seen from above appeared to
be real, and disguised real canons with false branches. They gave
snipers and machine gunners concealment by creating false walls, bales
of straw, and fake buildings constructed of card board. They made fake
trees with ladders behind them so observers could spy inside of enemy
trenches. They successfully camouflaged artillery, trenches, trains,
bridges and entire villages behind giant canvases painted to look like
forests when viewed by planes flying above. After the war, the artists
observed the ruins of war: felled trees, scorched earth, demolished
buildings and a sea of soldiers’ graves. This turned the art world
against war and established art norms as well.  This dissatisfaction
with the status quo contributed to the birth of the art movement that
rebelled against normalcy, known as DaDa (which we will discuss in a
future article about the artist colony in Ridgefield, NJ where two
Dadaists named Man Ray and Duchamp lived and worked)
    I enlisted in the U.S. Navy out of patriotic fervor and a lust for
adventure. The men and women who are dying in Iraq are volunteers who
willingly signed the enlistment papers, much like the artists I
mentioned in this article. This is part of the reason there is not a
60s type eruption of protest against this war on the part of the Bush
Administration’s opposition. Many Americans believe we are there for a
reason, but if the citizens who are against the war lost sons due to a
draft, I’m sure our streets would once again see tumultuous rebellion.
I have three beautiful daughters who are artistically talented. They
are my little artists, although they are starting to rebel against
their papa by talking about pursuing careers as doctors, dentists and
teachers. I respond to the frolicsome ribbing of other fathers who ask
me “What, no sons?” with the response: “I never have to worry about
the draft.” This is how my brother in law, a Marine who saw heavy
action in Vietnam, responded to the same question and I learned it
from him. I proudly served in the military, but declare that the only
way a military recruiter could come near my beautiful little artists
would be over my dead body. Sorry Uncle Sam, family comes first! They
are not going to die because of some politician’s bright ideas. If I
had handsome, creative young sons I would be petrified right now.
   I had the pleasure of discussing this with my friend, Dr. Camillo Bica,
who is a professor of philosophy in Manhattan. Dr. Bica served in the
US Marine Corp from 1968-71, which included a thirteen month tour in
Vietnam. He was a 1st Lieutenant and was the platoon and company
commander. From 1982-1987, Dr. Bica founded and coordinated the Vietnam
Veteran Self Help Initiative at the Dept of Veterans Affairs Medical
Center in Brooklyn; from 1987 to date he is a consultant to this
program (pro-bono). Dr. Bica was a Hospital Ethics Committee member at
the Dept of VA Medical Center, Brooklyn.
  Dr. Bica explained, “I would just like to add that artists are not
unique in their being negatively affected by the horrors of war. So have
philosophers, and bricklayers, and carpenters, and electricians, etc.
War is an equal opportunity destroyer and does not discriminate between
particular professions, talents, or nationalities. By the way, should
the draft be needed, it may well be the case that girls, even girls with
great artistic abilities, will be subject to conscription.”
     “Regardless of whether one joins or is conscripted, no one volunteers
to be wasted in some useless and unnecessary war for corporate
profit. Because one believes, like you and I did, that patriotism
requires serving one’s country, does not sentence someone to become
cannon fodder. It would be like saying, “well because you enlisted,
you deserve whatever you get!” Further, I fear for everyone’s
children and, being a philosopher, I must demand consistency. That
is, if a parent believes that the war, the cause, is not worthy of
their child’s life, limbs, or sanity, then neither is it worthy of
the life, limbs, or sanity of someone else’s child. To support, or do
nothing to stop, a war because it doesn’t personally affect me or my
family, it is like saying “the war is OK as long as it is your
children who die and not mine.”
     Now I am honored to hear some thoughts from Marine Reserve Colonel
Matthew Bogdanos. I have the up-most respect for the Colonel, who is
a native New Yorker, middleweight boxer, holds a degree in classics
from Bucknell University, a law degree and a master’s degree in
Classical Studies from Columbia University, and a master’s degree in
Strategic Studies from the Army War College. Col Bogdanos received a
Bronze Star for counterterrorist operations in Afghanistan, and then
served two tours in Iraq, where he was instrumental in recovering
multiple Iraqi artifacts that were stolen from the Iraq Museum. Col
Bogdanos has been assistant district attorney in Manhattan since
1988. In his recently written book “Thieves of Baghdad”, the Col
describes his passion for art and antiquities and his valiant effort
to recover looted antiquities. This book is a must read for any art
lover who is interested in Mesopotamian antiquity.

Charles Sabba- Is the Iraq Museum now open to the public?

Col Matthew Bogdanos-  The Iraq Museum has been closed for over 20 years
and will not be open for many years until the security situation improves.

CS- There hasn’t been a lot of artistic exchange between Iraq and the U.S.
in order to facilitate bringing the two peoples closer together. Do you
believe a cultural exchange is possible in the future?

MB- There will be an artistic exchange, but it is not necessary to bring
the peoples together. There is no problem between the good Iraqi and
American people, there is only a problem between a very small faction of
murderers who are murdering in Iraq and our armed forces.
    The Iraqi treasures ought to go on tour around the world not just to
exhibit their beauty, but to show the rest of the world that the
nation is not made up of insurgents and murderers, who make up only
10% of the population, but a rich, diverse people. The Iraqi people
are the cultural heirs to an extraordinarily rich, cultural heritage.

CS- We hear daily reports of the murder and mayhem that goes on in the hot
zones of Iraq. How are the people getting along in the rest of the
country?

MB- For the most part they are surviving. It is the randomness of the
fighting that is debilitating.

CS- Colonel, you are a war hero. You heard my thoughts, as well as Dr.
Bica’s. Would you care to comment?

MB- Make no mistake, I am opposed to war. I am in total agreement with
John Stewart Mill on this that war is evil, but it is not the worst evil.
Mill said that “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The
decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks
that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for
which he is willing to fight for, nothing which is more important than his
own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being
free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men.”
    Both Dr. Bica and Col. Bogdanos are brave American heroes. They have
different points of view, but the same love and respect of life,
family and country. I am honored to share their thoughts with you. I
did not desire to write an anti- or pro- war article, or slant in
favor of either side of the argument that now rages across America. I
only wanted to speak from the heart on the part of many artists and
loving fathers. I hope I am contributing to a healthy debate amongst
countrymen, rather then to the divisive, politically motivated
bickering that I feel is taking place in both the conservative and
liberal camps in Washington DC, and that is being propagated by the
media. Many brave U.S., Coalition, and Iraqi military and police lives
depend on wise decision making at this point; and let us not forget
the courageous Iraqi citizens who stoically endure the most
unimaginable hardships and family losses in their daily struggle to
survive.
     To close, I want to share the profound thoughts of Adam “King Adz”
Stone. King Adz is a British film writer/producer/director who, after
reading the rough draft of this article stated: “Art is something you
can’t define, almost like life itself. War is the opposite of both
these things. I think you are standing on very dodgy ground by
speaking about art and war in the same sentence.”

Rahway Record Arts District Column:
www.new-jersey.ws/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=67