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ARLIS Colleagues,

FYI

Between 1966 and 1969 the U.S. Army, Office, Chief of Military History
with the logistics support of the Army Crafts Program selected by
competition teams of soldier artists (5 artists per team) and sent them
to
Vietnam. They were charged with the responsibility of recording through
their art the army=B9s operational and mission functions for inclusion in
the
annals of army military history. They made sketches, gathered
information
and impressions while traveling from unit to unit and participating in
whatever the unit visited was doing. A second leg of the program sent
each
U.S. Army Vietnam Combat Art team to Hawaii where, under less hostile
conditions, they fleshed out their sketches and impressions into
finished
works of art.

The Army=B9s Vietnam  Combat Art Program was unique in that qualified
artists
were selected exclusively by competition from the U.S. Army=B9s own ranks.
Prior to this program  military artists, for the most part,  had been
seasoned, professional and civilian.

This was a bold and innovative experiment for the army.  Selected
soldier
artists were granted freedom to express themselves as they saw fit and
were
actually encouraged to use a personal style. The resulting body of work
from these forty-two artists is an uncommon and compelling look at the
every-day life of army soldiers at war.

Forty-two soldier artists participated in the U.S. Army Vietnam Combat
Art
Program and their art is permanently archived in the U.S. Army Center of
Military History, Army Art Collection in Washington, D.C.

Jim Pollock, who went to Vietnam in 1967 as a member of U.S. Army
Vietnam
Combat Art Team IV, has a web site that includes samples of his art that
is
in the Center of Military History Army Art Collection. Also on this site
are historical documents relating to the Vietnam Combat Art Program,
news
reports and an article written by the artist entitled =B3One Day In
Vietnam.=B2
Site is informational and historical.

http://members.aol.com/jimm844224/vietart1.html

Please feel free to make links to this site from yours, and pass the
above
information around to any other history or art  Listserve that you think
may be interested.

Jim Pollock

You wrote list:
=3EFeel free to send any good links to museum library research resources.
=3E
=3E
=3EComments,  ideas (along with your urls and annotations) welcome.
=3E
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=3EFloyd Sweeting III, Head, Information Systems Department
=3EThe Frick Collection and Frick Art Reference Library
=3Esweeting=40frick.org