Images of War: The Artist's Vision of World War II

Monumental & unprecedented, Images of War is a stunningly powerful record of war as portrayed by artists. Throughout World War II, from Europe to Africa to the Pacific, artists committed to paper or canvas their unique impressions of the epochal events of which they were a part. These highly personal artworks-from all the combatant nations & most never before published-convey the human meaning of armed conflict in a way that no other medium can. Some of the artists were commissioned by their governments to record important campaigns, while others just felt the need to express their own visions of the war. Only a few were or would become famous. All, however, created their art out of firsthand experience. International in scope, the book includes some 75 artists from 14 countries-chosen from among thousands of artworks hanging in juseums & tucked away in archives. Of special note are nearly 50 paintings from the Soviet Union, most never before available to the West. Throughout, the art is married to a carefully chosen text of excerpted eyewitness accounts that complement the immediacy of the potent images. In an era when history is recorded, shaped, & transmitted with electronic efficiency & mechanical coldness, Images of War reveals human truths about warfare that can only be expressed through the eye & hand of the artist. Ken McCormick is a former editor-in-chief at Doubleday. Hamilton Darby Perry has been publisher of American Heritage magazine & books & editorial chief of the Franklin Library.McCormick, Ken is the author of 'Images of War: The Artist's Vision of World War II' with ISBN 9780517570654 and ISBN 0517570653.