THE ART SCENE

UAV activist's work part of "Art of Combat" exhibit in Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS - Roman Rakowsky, former commander of the U.S. Army Combat Art Team VIII, which executed its duties in Vietnam and Hawaii in 1969, participated in a major exhibition held at the Indianapolis Art Center titled "The Art of Combat. Artists and the Vietnam War, Then and Now." The event explored the impact of the Vietnam War on visual and literary artists who participated as soldiers in the Vietnam War.

The exhibition, which opened October 27, 2000, and ran through January 7, was composed of 44 pieces of art created between 1966 and 1971 by 37 U.S. Army artists in Vietnam from the Army's Center of Military History Art Collection. Mr. Rakowsky's piece called "Body Count No. 2," a two-color woodcut print, was included in the collection.

Fourteen artists were presented at the opening ceremony; these same artists also participated in a panel discussion regarding their experiences in Vietnam and how it affected their art then and now. The event was open to the public, and audience members participated with their own questions about the art and Vietnam.

During the Vietnam War the U.S. Army Center of Military History operated the Vietnam Combat Art Program. Over 40 soldier artists were selected by an Army-wide competition and sent to Vietnam. The artists were usually organized in five-man teams. Their mission was to record their artistic and visual impressions of Army operations in Vietnam for the permanent war art collection of the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington.

Mr. Rakowsky is a past national commander of the Ukrainian American Veterans, and a member and past post commander of UAV Post 24 in Cleveland.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 28, 2001, No. 4, Vol. LXIX

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