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Artist: Steve Mumford |
| Exhibition: Tactical Action |
| Date: April 14 2004 - June 10 2004 |
Curator: Lea Rekow
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Bio:
Painter Steve Mumford has traveled to Iraq on his own initiative three times since mid April 2003.
Not sponsored and not “embedded”, he is single-handedly reviving and updating the great tradition of a war artist and history painter. Steve obtained a press pass from an art website/portal artnet and entered, via Kuwait, literally on the day the statues fell. He made his way through Basra, Nasiriya and Kerbalah to Baghdad, and took trips north to Tikrit and Kirkuk. He returned to New York in mid May and left again August 9, this time starting with Baghdad and planning to stay in Iraq for about 2-3 months. He spent the last two weeks of that trip in the Sunni triangle. His most recent trip took place from mid- January until mid-March 2004
As he travels, he makes ink drawings and watercolors recording in this most traditional way his unmediated experiences of such extraordinary time and place. They depict scenes from daily street life in Iraq, military actions and private headquarters of the US soldiers, encounters with Iraqi artists, museums, oil fields, mass graves excavations, and serene countryside. The drawings, accomplished and expressive, are often very moving and beautiful; not a simple task given that many are made in quite stressful circumstances.
Steve Mumford has posted many of his diary entries and images from his trips on artnet magazine - in addition to his sketchbook, he took a laptop and a satellite phone. Equally convincing arguments can sometimes be made, both, for and against closing the gap between art and life. The complex, highly charged entanglement of the two makes Steve Mumford's project unique.
- Magdalena Sawon, director
Postmasters Gallery
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