Miami Student

Issue date: 9/18/07 Section: Campus

"Artists Respond to War" in the Wertz Art and Architecture Library includes 42 studies by Picasso as well as other pieces by more modern artists. --Mihr Devare/The Miami Student

Soundless, yet resounding, are the voices that echo in the exhibition called, "Artists Respond To War," currently on display in the Wertz Art and Architecture Library in the basement of Alumni Hall.

From Picasso to several modern artists, the display includes artwork that responds and reacts to warfare and all of the tragedy that accompanies it throughout time.

Bound in books, the artwork includes paintings, photographs as well as other media.

Stacy Nakumura Brinkman, an art and architecture librarian, explained the process in which specific artists were chosen.

"We took books out of our collection about how artists over different time periods have responded to war," Brinkman said.

Among the works on display are 42 preliminary studies Picasso did in preparation for his mural, "Guernica," a piece he created after the Spanish Civil War bombing of a small town, for which the piece is named. Picasso used the preliminary drawings to plan out the final work.

"(The mural itself) has come to be known as the most famous or most significant response to war in art," Brinkman said.

The facsimiles, which are exact copies of Picasso's studies, are rotated daily with two or three viewable each day. Brinkman said that Miami is lucky to actually own the pieces.

"We acquired the book (of facsimiles) last year," Brinkman said. "We're the only academic library in Ohio that has it, according to the OhioLINK catalog."

Also featured in the exhibition is Steve Mumford's book, Baghdad Journal: An Artist In Occupied Iraq.

The New York artist traveled to Iraq four times between 2003 and 2004, capturing scenes as they unfolded in a manner similar to sketches from a courtroom.

"Instead of photojournalism, he is sketching and using watercolor in the streets to capture the everyday experience of the conflict in Iraq," Brinkman said.

Brinkman said that the purpose of the exhibit was not to convey a specific message.

"I don't think it's that intentional," Brinkman said. "It came out of more of a desire to participate, to think about the different response of war. We hear how politicians respond to war, how filmmakers respond to war, and artists are not a silent group."

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