Monday, May 28, 2012

Steve Mumford's Baghdad Journal

Most of the observers in war are writers, photographers, or videographers, but there have been a few artists on the front lines of combat in recent years, and one of them is Steve Mumford.


He says he is not a "war junky," but rather an artist first and foremost, like Winslow Homer, whose war art was just a part of his overall output.



Steve studied at the Boston Museum school, where the emphasis was on abstract expressionism, but later discovered his main interest was in telling stories.


Many of his paintings are done on location, but he also works in the studio from photos and from his quicker sketches done on the spot. These are typically drawn in sepia line and wash.
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Mumford's "Baghdad Journal" on Artnet
ABC News report on Mumford
Book: Baghdad Journal: An Artist in Occupied Iraq

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3 comments:

  1. Mary ByromMay 28, 2012 at 9:53 AM

    Wow, These are great! Thanks for featuring him Jim. I'd seen he work before but didn't remember his name. When I first saw his field sketches , I thought of Homer and the civil war.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Erik BongersMay 28, 2012 at 6:03 PM

    I bought his book a couple of years ago.
    Though I'm not entirely comfortable with the war-art combination.

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  3. Diogo CarneiroMay 28, 2012 at 10:02 PM

    Awesome! Is it Watercolor?

    ReplyDelete

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