We Will Remember Them. Scratchboard with acrylic ink, 7 x 5 in. Copyright 2007, Tania Nault.
Yesterday my daughter and I participated in the Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Cenotaph at Victoria Park. The Cenotaph is dedicated to the memory of soldiers from Regina who gave their lives during World War I, World War II and the Korean War. One of the speakers commented on how these memorial ceremonies seem to be better attended with each passing year - despite the loss of people who actually lived through those wars - younger Canadians seem committed to honouring the sacrifice of previous generations. He speculated there were three reasons for this: first, schools and teachers have made learning about the wars a priority; secondly, there is a current connection to the work of our armed forces as Canadian men and women serve abroad in Afghanistan and elsewhere; and finally, there are many new Canadians who have recently come from other countries directly affected by war.
One resource that Canada went through some trouble to obtain during the war, but that doesn’t get much attention, is in the form of thousands of sketches and paintings created by Canadian artists in the War Art Program. Although photography was used to document Canada’s involvement in WWI and WWII, there were those who thought it was important that painters and sculptors also record the war. A variety of reasons were given, from an unwillingness to trust the relatively new medium of photography, to the desire to have the artist to make his (there was only one woman commissioned to the program during the war, Molly Lamb, and she was only sent overseas after the war was over) own personal feelings part of the work. The artists were soldiers “embedded” with ground troops, naval and air forces. In WWI artists like A.Y. Jackson and Frederick Varley were asked to join the program and WWII saw over 30 artists like Alex Colville and Charles Comfort join. They would create some 13,000 drawings, paintings and sculptures that are now part of the collection of the Canadian War Museum. Unfortunately, because of the size of the collection, there is no permanent display, although occasional exhibitions are made. One of the better known of these is Canvas of War (2000) which combined the exhibition of paintings with a television documentary and virtual gallery of the work. The documentary and online galleries give Canadians a chance to see the work of these artists, as well as a chance for us all to reflect on war and the lives of the men and women who sacrificed so much.
