Jim Pollock Question and Answer Main Page
JIM POLLOCK INTERVIEW (copyright) Jim Pollock
6/15/98
Interview questions Student Baltimore/Washington Area Community College, for a class project/paper
Questions revolve around the subjects of Vietnam Combat Art experience, Army Art Collection location, other related questions.
Q: I AM HOPING TO FIND THE ART COLLECTION AND VIEW OTHER ARTISTS WORK. [I LIVE IN BALTIMORE-WASHINGTON AREA AND CAN'T SEEM TO LOCATE ANYONE WHO KNOWS WHERE THIS COLLECTION IS, CAN YOU HELP ME?)
POLLOCK: Possibly. The Army address for the people who keep the Vietnam war art is:
U. S. Army War Art Collection
Chief of Military History DAMH-HSA
Center of Military History Washington, D. C. 20314
The collection is really not a secret. The Army has done fairly good job of promoting the collection. I think the problem is that the mainstream media ignores the collection. You will really have to check the with the curators for details, but it is my understanding that there is no museum per se. The people in charge of the Army's War Art Collection have a small budget and a small staff. They do an excellent job under the circumstances they have to work with. It is my understanding the art is kept in storage except for traveling exhibits and loans to other museums and offices. I have no idea where any of my work is.
The Army has put out a couple of excellent books on the subject of their War Art Collection that includes wars other than Vietnam:
SOLDIERS SERVING THE NATION
Editor: General Gordon R. Sullivan, U.S. Army Chief of Staff
Art Editor: MaryLou Gjernes, Army Art Curator
Center of Military History
United State Army
Washington, D.C., 1995
CMHPUB 70-61
S/N 008-029-00313-9 ISBN 0-16-045496-4
For sale by U.S. Government Printing Office
Superintendent of Documents SSOP, Washington, D.C.<
PORTRAIT OF AN ARMY
Editor: General Gordon R. Sullivan, U.S. Army Chief of Staff
Art Editor: MaryLou Gjernes, Army Art Curator
Center of Military History
United State Army
Washington, D.C., 1995
CMHPUB 70-20
S/N 008-029-00220-5 No ISBN number
For sale by U.S. Government Printing Office
Superintendent of Documents SSOP, Washington, D.C.
Q: THE PURPOSE OF THE USE OF SOLDIER-ARTISTS, ACCORDING TO YOUR ARTICLES, WAS TO SEE THE WAR 'THROUGH A SOLDIERS EYES. DO YOU THINK THAT THIS WAS ACCOMPLISHED, AND IF SO, I WOULD THINK THAT THROUGH THIS PROGRAM THE ARMY GOT MUCH MORE THAN THEY WERE EXPECTING.
POLLOCK: I think the Army was pleased with he results of the program, at least they have sent out letters to the artists thanking them and in the books PORTRAIT OF AN ARMY and SOLDIERS SERVING THE NATION had positive things to say about the program. I think they were surprised that they could find qualified artists within the ranks. Sometimes I think the Army gets a bad wrap, some people want to believe that everything the Army does is propaganda, including this art program. This is simply not true. In Vietnam Combat Artists were assigned to the Office, Chief of Military History. We were encouraged to express ourselves freely and with any art style and subject we wished. We were never encouraged or told what or how to do our job or censored in our depiction of our interpretations of our experience. There were broad written guidelines found in Standard Operating Procedure for the Combat Artist Program (HCSS SOP No. 424 on web site). The Army gave us pens, paints, brushes and asked us to interpret our experiences.
Q: WHY DID THE ARMY USE CIVILIAN ARTISTS, TOO?
POLLOCK: I really do not know. It is my understanding there were ten civilian artists during the Vietnam War. Possibly the Army was making an attempt to honestly depict war operations and civilian artists would just be another perspective. During other wars only civilian artists were used as official Army artists. For the most part soldiers are young and would not have had much experience as artists. The real question is why would the Army take this risk and use young soldier artists with very little experience as artists. I say hats off to them, it worked and the art completed by soldier artists contribute much to the historical background of war. The Soldier Art program is run differently today, but the Army to this day uses soldier artists to record their missions.
Q: WAS IT DIFFICULT TO FIND INSPIRATION IN VIETNAM?
POLLOCK: Finding inspiration was no problem. There was too much to report visually and there just wasn't enough time to cover everything. One of the things I tried to do with my art was to describe the everyday soldier in everyday situations. I tried to capture the essence of the common soldier's experience in Vietnam and pass that experience on to the viewers of my art. Every once in awhile I receive an E-mail from a Veteran pointing out that their specific jobs in Vietnam were not depicted in my art. A tanker contacted my and was disappointed that I had not done a piece depicting tankers, another was disappointed that I did not do something related to guard dogs. I feel regret that I did not have time to cover everything. If through my art the viewer has a glimpse of just one aspect of what it was like to be a common soldier in Vietnam in 1967, then my efforts will have been worthwhile.
Q: HOW WERE YOU AFFECTED BY THIS EXPERIENCE? DO YOU THINK YOU GREW? WAS YOUR STYLE AFFECTED AFTER THIS EXPERIENCE?
POLLOCK: As a soldier artist I was in my early 20's, twenty-two or twenty-three. Very young in the world of art and I had not defined myself as an artist. This Vietnam experience, in addition to allowing me to contribute something to history, gave me confidence to continue with my art career.
My art has changed and it continues to change over the years. You can see art that I have done since serving as an Army artist by clicking on the non-war art section of my web site. My views on art are in a constant state of revision. The Vietnam experience, however, did solidify my belief that art can have an important role to play in history even in an age where cameras and photography abound.
Q: DO YOU THINK THAT THE ARTWORK THAT YOU DID FOR THE COLLECTION HELPED YOU TO COPE WITH YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT THE WAR?
POLLOCK: My job was to record what I experienced. Sort of like a reporter. I have not been concerned with my coping, it has always been my hope that my art could in some way help others cope. The art teams had open travel orders while in Vietnam, which meant we could pick any area we wished to visit at any time. I visited many units. Normally while visiting a unit we would stay from 1-4 days and do whatever they were doing. If they were tramping through rice paddies and jungle, that is what we did. I have estimated that we had visited 52 units and traveled 3600 mile. That is a lot of traveling in a small country like Vietnam. In all my travels in Vietnam, the one thing that has stuck with me is my respect and empathy for the soldiers who served full tours. I receive E-mail from soldiers thanking me for putting up the site, so I think in some small way my art contributes to veterans being able to work through their experiences in Vietnam.<
Q: WOULD YOU DO IT AGAIN?
POLLOCK: Yes.
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