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Ideas on art history: studying the influence of military art


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I'm looking for an interesting way to finish ds' fine arts credit. I'm having trouble wording my searches to find what I need. I'm really tired and can't think either, so if this doesn't make sense I'll explain more in the morning. I don't want necessarily military art. I'm looking at how the depiction of warfare in art & modern mediums (film, photography) has influenced society's viewpoint on war.

 

My initial thoughts and inspiration were from looking at a picture of a Grecian urn with a battle scene painted on it, the hero boldly standing with his spear. My thoughts then jumped to the Civil War and Matthew Brady's photographs. We have a thorough book on the Civil War, and there is nothing really heroic about most of those photos. Then, of course, moving into the film and propaganda posters of WWII and the news reports of Vietnam, etc.

 

Can someone give me an idea what this kind of study might be called? I'd also be interested in resources or what you would add.

 

I only need this to be about .25 credit as we'll be doing a couple other topics on art history as well.

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Thank you!!! Art and War, simple. I was googling long phrases and coming up with nothing, which is indicative of my overthinking most things. :lol:

 

Yes, the memorials and paintings are great ideas too. We plan to visit a WWI museum as well, I'll see what they have.

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Art and War: Piccasso Robert Capa's "Falling Soldier" photo staged? In this one, the question is over a famous photo showing a soldier being shot during the Spanish Civil War. (I find the topic interesting because it touches on the current issue of "truthiness" - something that isn't quite true, but is repeated because it supports what someone wants to be true. )
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I'm looking at how the depiction of warfare in art & modern mediums (film, photography) has influenced society's viewpoint on war.

It might be fun to look at military propaganda posters. It would be easy to slip into criticism of propaganda, but more interesting *to me* to observe how propaganda helped families at home to cope and those at home to feel useful. One inexpensive book we used was Color Your Own Patriotic Posters by Dover.

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Combat artist Rob Bates was interviewed on a local radio show http://www.wfae.org/post/combat-artist-rob-bates

 

Compare Olivier's version of Henry V (1944, pro-British propaganda) and Branagh's version (1989, anti-war focus)

 

Grave of the Fireflies---Japanese anime (either subtitled or dubbed) about the aftermath of WWII

www.teachingwithmovies.org has a study guide

http://ncta.osu.edu/lessons/japan/history/nickelS-jpn.pdf

 

The Best Years of Our Lives ---1946 movie about 3 soldiers returning to civilian life, including one who lost both his hands

 

Eve of Vichy (on Netflix streaming)---" documentary examines Nazi and Vichy newsreels and propaganda films from World War II meant to turn the French against the Jews and the Allied Forces and into Nazi sympathizers. Chabrol deftly probes how the media was used to manipulate the French, and asks how history's outcome could have been different had the enemies succeeded."

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