War and Remembrance focuses on the issue of conflict, and explores how artists have historically interpreted and recorded war experiences and their consequences. Highlighting the exhibition are studies drawn from a facsimile edition of Pablo Picasso’s preliminary sketches for his 1937 masterpiece, Guernica. These works, coupled with a mural replica of Guernica, created by artist Rose Viviano for the Syracuse Peace Council, draw attention to the long-lasting emotional impact of warfare.

Acts & Memory: Paintings by Langdon Quin, 1990 – 2010, features 35 works compiled over two decades which showcase the New York artist’s transitional sense of color, composition, and light. From landscapes and still lifdes to narrative figure studies, these works highlight the artist’s stylistic development through his years as a faculty artist of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of New Hampshire to his more recent works.

Running concurrently, Acts & Memory: Paintings by Langdon Quin, 1990 – 2010 features 35 works by the New York painter and former faculty member of the Department of Art and Art History, University of New Hampshire. Spanning 20 years of work completed in Europe and locally, the exhibition includes landscapes, still lives, and figure studies. Contemplative studies of light and pattern, Quin’s compositions draw the viewer in, evoking a sense of familiarity of place and time.

His figure studies become more character explorations of human nature and interaction, becoming narrative looks into the private lives of the sitters. Window views provide meditative glimpses into the interaction of exterior and interior spaces, where the confinement of space gives way to the subtle lure of the idyllic countryside. A large triptych, Working From Life III, pays homage to Quin’s teaching career, capturing a chaotic "behind-the-scenes" view of students at work in the studio. The role of the model and the necessity of preparation acknowledge the commitment of time and study, required by both the teacher and the artist, to creating works of art.

ABOUT THE GALLERY

Museum of Art exhibitions and accompanying programs are funded in part by the Friends of the Museum of Art, the Museum’s membership organization. The Museum of Art is open during the academic year: Monday-Wednesday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday, 1-5 p.m.; closed Fridays and University holidays, including March 12-21 and April 2-4.

Guided group tours for schools and other organizations are available with advance reservation by contacting Catherine A. Mazur, education and publicity coordinator, at 603-862-3713. For more information, contact the Museum of Art at 603-862-3712

MUCH MORE ON War and Remembrance

War and Remembrance challenges our notion of warfare and spotlights the injustices humans inflict upon one another during conflict. From historical documentation to graphic records of the horrors of war, these works draw the viewer in — at times as a neutral observer and at others, an uncomfortable witness to acts of human destruction. Varying in medium from collage, drawings, paintings, photographs, and prints, these works depict various stages of warfare engagement — from the first preparations for battle to the devastating aftermath. Images in the exhibition are drawn from conflicts around the world, including: World War I, World War II, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, and the current Iraqi War.

Artists featured include James Montgomery Flagg, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, Utagawa Hiroshige, Winslow Homer, Käthe Kollwitz, Pablo Picasso, Gountei Sadahide, and Margot Zemach, as well as contemporary artists Sigmund Abeles, Tom Hall, Mauricio Lasansky, Tom Paiement, Betye Saar, and Nathan Webster.

The highlight of War and Remembrance is facsimiles of Pablo Picasso’s preliminary sketches for his monumental work, Guernica. The limited edition printing of these important sketches allowed viewers, for the first time, insight into the artist’s creative process as he expressed outrage and anguish over the 1937 bombing of Guernica, a non-military target in Basque Country on the Spanish border. The spontaneity of his drawings and the passionate rendition of figures, both real and from his imagination, clearly depict his profound sense of grief and compassion.

Over the years, Guernica has become one of the most highly recognized reminders of the tragedies of war, and has served as a symbolic plea for peace. A half-size mural replicating Picasso’s final work, created by artist Rose Viviano for the Syracuse Peace Council, will be on view as well, offering viewers the ability to draw a comparison between Picasso’s sketches and the completed work.

One of the earliest prints in War and Remembrance, Leaving for the Battlefield, by Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige shows the systematic preparation for war by masses of Japanese soldiers. Coupled with Battle Scene by Sadahige depicting warriors actively engaging the enemy in a highly organized and expertly executed struggle, these early works showcase the heroic activities of soldiers bound by duty to serve their nation with honor and determination.

Two other works present a more introspective view of conflict, where the impact on the individual becomes the central concern. Käthe Kollwitz’s striking image of an individual preparing for battle, Sharpening the Scythe, reflects her deeply personal response to Germany’s violent Peasant War. Francisco de Goya’s Estos es Peor (This is Worse), from the Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War) Series, is his disturbing response to the physical cruelty of guerilla warfare inflicted by French soldiers against Spanish citizens.

The recognition of the soldier as both a member of the military as well as an individual being becomes evident in Winslow Homer’s 1862 engraving, Thanksgiving Day in Camp from Harper’s Weekly, where a "behind-the-scenes" view of camp life is depicted. James Montgomery Flagg’s 1917-19 image, The Doughboy, also reflects this view of the personal plight of the soldier, where, in the throes of battle, one soldier assists another fallen

comrade. This emotional image highlights the man’s need to help their fellow man, and became the poster image used by Liberty Loans as a way to encourage individual assistance in funding the war effort.

Another emotional response to conflict is evident in Mauricio Lasansky’s Dachau. This abstract, yet moody, print inspired by Picasso’s Guernica, drew attention to Nazi occupation during World War II and the horrors of the Dachau Concentration Camp, the Nazi concentration camp to be opened in Germany.

More contemporary images of warfare, while shifting in style and medium, highlight the sustaining, emotional impact of conflict. Sigmund Abeles’s Helicopters with Kids, created in 1967 at the height of the Vietnam War, spotlights the impact of war on the innocent masses. The image of chaos and fear inflicted on mass populations is depicted in a poignant depiction of children screaming in terror as helicopters loom overhead.

Contemporary Maine artist Tom Paiement presents his view of human plight in an abstract compilation of images and words that reflect his response to conflict in contemporary society. Two works from his Entropy series showcase man’s angst and inner turmoil as he is caught up in a chaotic swirl of societal opposition. Tom Hall’s contemporary painting Nein Zum Krieg (No to War) and Nathan Webster’s photographs of soldiers in Iraq provide a silent, yet potent commentary on how conflict divides us as a species. Betye Saar’s The Long Memory brings a sense of resolution and remembrance to those who have been lost to conflict over the centuries.