Jim Pollock Question and Answer Main Page
JIM POLLOCK INTERVIEW (copyright) Jim Pollock
4/7/99
Interview questions by Italian Student, Intermediate School.
Questions revolve around the subjects of Vietnam Combat Art, When, Where, Why, Television and other related questions.
Q: HOW, WHEN, WHERE AND WHY DID YOU PAINT PICTURES OF THE VIETNAM WAR?
POLLOCK: The pictures were drawn and painted for historical purposes.
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's 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's Vietnam Combat Art Program was unique in that qualified artists were selected exclusively by competition from the U.S. Army's own ranks. Prior to this program military artists, for the most part, had been seasoned, professional and civilian. 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 everyday life of army soldiers at war.
Over forty 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.
I went to Vietnam in 1967 as a member of U.S. Army Vietnam Combat Art Team IV, samples of my art that is in the Center of Military History Army Art Collection are on my WEB site (http://members.aol.com/jimm844224/vietart1.html). Also on this site are historical documents relating to the Vietnam Combat Art Program, news reports and an article entitled '"'One Day In Vietnam'"' that give a written account of one days experience.
Q: AS A TELEVISION SPECTATOR OF CURRENT MILITARY EVENTS, WHAT IS YOUR OPINION OF MILITARY EVENTS SIMILAR TO VIETNAM.
POLLOCK: All wars are bad. I suppose some are just and necessary because there is evil in the world. My job was to record through my art what was going on from a soldiers point of view. I did that as well as I could. I will say this, I am much more skeptical of the accuracy of the evening television news after my experience in Vietnam.
Q: I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR WAR EXPERIENCE AND THE IMPRESSION IT HAS MADE ON YOU.
POLLOCK: One experience you can read about on my WEB site. One night when returning from a field trip myself and two of my fellow artists hitched a ride on a helicopter. When we boarded we found inside dead U.S. soldiers in body bags stacked like cord wood. This experience will always haunt my memory.
The article ONE DAY IN VIETNAM details that experience and you can read it on our web site at:
http://members.aol.com/jimm844224/vietart1.html
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. My views on art are also 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.
I traveled from unit to unit and empathy for the field soldier in units I visited was the emotion that most often felt. No matter the unit, I always admired the soldiers and how they faced the hardships in the field.
This experience of going to Vietnam as an artist was one of the defining experiences in my life and am certain my life would have been different without it.
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