STEVE MUMFORD
The War in Iraq
October 21 - December 2, 2006
These paintings are based on experiences and impressions from 11 months in Iraq. I went there four times, from April, 2003 to
October, 2004, spending about half of my time embedded with various US military units throughout Baghdad and the Sunni Triangle. I
also got to know many Iraqi artists in Baghdad, who I hung out with on each trip.
I was drawing and painting in watercolor throughout these trips, but looking for compositions for oil paintings that might go beyond
simply recording daily life and tasks. I wanted to distill something essential about the drama of war, beyond right and wrong.
These aren't anti-war paintings. They aren't political. I'm not trying to address the morality of war, or George Bush's foreign
policy agenda. I went to Iraq because I wanted to know what being in a war zone was like, and paint about it from my own subjective
experiences. The events in the paintings are either things I saw or things that happened nearby.
I found being in a war zone addictive. An uneventful patrol with a platoon (99% of them were) might elicit a "That was fucking
boring!" from a soldier. I always knew what they meant, that yearning for action, yet dreading it. I'm sure the young Sunni
insurgents, lying in ambush, felt exactly the same thing.
The Vietnam War photojournalist Tim Page was recovering from shrapnel wounds when he supposedly got a request for a submission for
a book with the purpose of "taking the glamour out of war". Page declined, telling his friends that you could no more take the
glamour out of war than out of sex, or the Rolling Stones.
—Steve Mumford, September 2006
This is Steve Mumford's first show of paintings based on his experiences and observations in Iraq. They range from a 15 feet long
epic depiction of a battle in Bakubah to an intimate portrait of a dying insurgent. Mumford's drawings have been published as a
book "Baghdad Journal" in 2005, and twice appeared as a portfolio section of Harper's Magazine. They have been shown extensively
in the last two years. Steve Mumford: Baghdad and Beyond, is presently on view at Tufts University Art Gallery in Medford, MA,
and will travel to Savannah College of Art and Design Gallery in Savannah, GA in early 2007.
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Steve Mumford The Battle in Baquba 2006 oil on linen 60 x 188 inches |
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Steve Mumford Archers 2006 oil on linen 54 x 66 inches |
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Steve Mumford Going Back In 2006 oil on linen 62 x 84 inches |
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Steve Mumford Duel 2005 oil on linen 48 x 48 inches |
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Steve Mumford The Accused 2005 oil on linen 48 x 48 inches |
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Steve Mumford Dying Insurgent 2005 oil on linen 48 x 60 inches |
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Steve Mumford Sniper 2006 oil on linen 36 x 84 inches |
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Steve Mumford Sandstorm in Tirkit 2006 oil on linen 54 x 66 inches |
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Steve Mumford Steve in Bagdad 2006 oil on linen 20 x 48 inches |