Existing comment:
Leon Golub
born Chicago, IL 1922–died New York City 2004
Vietnam II
1973
acrylic on canvas
Tate: Presented by the American Fund for the Tate Gallery, Courtesy of Ulrich and Harriet Meyer (Building the Tate Collection), 2012
Golub was a vocal activist against the Vietnam War long before depicting the conflict directly in his painting. For years he addressed the theme of human violence in more generalized ways, as in his Gigantomachies, epic scenes of warring, struggling men. Only beginning in 1972 did he create three Vietnam paintings that show figures in detail of race, dress, and weaponry. Golub compared the immense scale of these works to the "grotesqueness" of U.S. military might. The irregular cuts in Vietnam II's canvas and the loose way it hangs emphasize his desire to confront the viewer:"The shock of encountering a brutal, tangible monster of this kind means that you have to take account of it -- you have to figure out why such a thing appears in your world. "you have to figure out why such a thing appears in your world." |