WASHINGTON (Army News Service, July 23, 2010) -- The public will get a chance to see for the first time more than 250 paintings and sketches of the American Soldier at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia Sept. 24 through Jan. 10.
Representative of a 15,000-piece collection created by more than 1,300 Soldier-artists, including never-before-seen artwork has been in storage in Washington since the start of the Army's art program in World War I.
The exhibit will explore how Soldier-artists saw Army life, from trench warfare terror in 1918 to USO shows, field training to simple daily life like a morning shave in the Middle East. Mediums range from etchings, pen and ink, pencil, watercolor, charcoal as well as oil and acrylic paints.
One Soldier's art that will be on display is that of Army staff artist Master Sgt. Martin J. Cervantez with the Army Center of Military History. He deployed to Afghanistan in 2008 and later to Haiti following the January earthquake. While his primary job was to capture photographic images to later transform into oils, watercolor, pen and ink, he carried a weapon and took the same direction as the unit's Soldiers.
"Whether I go out with an infantry or armor unit, I do what they do, act like they act and try to fit in as best I can," he said. "I try to immediately fit in with them so they'll be comfortable with me and I can get the images I need without jeopardizing their mission."
He said the artwork he creates must be solely from his experiences and that he doesn't work from anyone else's photos or sketches. He also sketches in the field, but notes that security dictates what he is able to do.
"When I go out and shoot in a combat zone, I don't always capture what I really see because of shutter speeds, lighting conditions and things like that," he added. "Art is the artist's perception. I snap what I can; I just see a lot more than what's there and that's what I've been able to express through some of my artwork."
"It's my experience that I'm putting on canvas," Cervantez said. "I don't work from anyone else's photos or sketches, though I do sketch while I'm in the field, but security dictates what I can do out there."
He said he likes using brighter colors to amplify what he sees and believes there's room for the abstract, but he'll save his ideas for personal works after retiring from the Army.
"Art of the American Soldier" is being put together by the National Constitution Center in partnership with the Army Center of Military History and the National Museum of the Army, which is slated to begin construction at Fort Belvoir, Va., in 2013.
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