Existing comment:
Robert Morris
born Kansas City, MO 1931–died Kingston, NY 2018
Trench with Chlorine Gas, from the series Five War Memorials
1970
Lithograph
Private Collection, Courtesy of Castelli Gallery
Morris created this lithograph in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Cambodia and the killing of students at Kent State University and Jackson State College. A prominent minimalist sculptor, Morris had not previously referenced the war in his work. Here he proposes an X-shaped trench brimming with noxious gas to memorialize the horrors of war rather than its heroics. The artist implies an analogy between chlorine gas, a substance banned after World War I, and chemicals weaponized in Vietnam, such as Agent Orange |