from the DIRECTOR
One cannot discount the savagery and brutality of war, especially one being waged upon innocent victims who want peace, security and liberty for their country and for their children. The images we have seen daily of the murder of non-combatants have been sickening and terrifying. Who will forget the diaspora of Ukraine’s mothers, her children, as they seek shelter and safety in neighboring countries, and how often have we heard those children and their mothers express their ardent wishes to go home? As it should be, this war has been a focal point of discussion lately — and shall continue to be so for years to come — by the global museums of the In- ternational Council of Museums’ (ICOM) community. At times, it has almost seemed crass to me, as a member of ICOM-US’s board, that we have worried over the language that condemns the war for its possible and proven destruc- tion of Ukraine’s cultural heritage almost before we condemn the havoc it has rained upon its citizens, who have been killed, dislocated, separated and disheartened. In fact, our first response privileged objects, or seemed to do so, over people, and for that I am sorry. Our second statement, calling out the monstrous atrocities of Russia’s troops and its mercenaries against the civil- ian population, was stronger and more direct in its solidarity with the people of Ukraine as well as in emphasizing our fear that Putin meant to efface or erase the nation’s rich and vibrant history and culture. Museums have already been bombed and set afire; even as I am writing, I am receiving news of the destruction of another provincial museum in Ukraine. To the end of sharing the distress of museum professionals everywhere over the plight of people and museums in Ukraine, I would like to include here part of what I drafted for ICOM-US’s condemnation of the Russian incursion: The past three years have been intense ones for the employees and care- takers of museums around the world. Recently added to the tribulations of COVID, the challenge of facing down racial and social injustice, and this hateful, unnecessary war, we now learn of the stabbing of our colleagues at MoMA and a fire at the Whitney. What affects one of us truly affects us all. For example, our concern for our shared cultural heritage is not just for that of the Americas but for human achievement worldwide. We shiver at the threat of the Russians to destroy or remove to Moscow the magnificent objects and structures of Ukraine’s glorious past. Ukraine, in today’s world, is not so far away. Those of us who abhor what is happening to the people and to their art and history reach across thousands of miles to them. Symptomatic of our concern has been the international acceptance of the Ukrainian national anthem to the extent that so many of us have learned the music without understanding the lyrics. We find if not solace at least comprehension of the horror of war in the words of such poets as Rupert Brooke, in such novels as Edith Wharton’s “A Son at the Front” and, frighteningly, in “Animal Farm” and “1984.” Goya is unrelenting in his depiction of the terror of battle and suffering in his “Disasters of War.” Like - wise difficult but necessary to see is Miriam Beerman’s two-part painting “O the Chimneys,” a visual exegesis on the savagery that humans have inflicted on each other in the 20th century. As Mathew Arnold so eloquently said in his poem “Dover Beach”:
Miriam Beerman (American, b. 1923), “O the Chimneys, Part 1: Shoes,” and “O the Chimneys, Part II: Flames,” 1990. Oil and mixed media on canvas, 71 × 59 inches (each). Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Museum purchase with funds generously provided by Paula and Jerry Gottesman. GMOA 2016.156.1 – 2.
And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.
Francisco Goya (Spanish, 1746 – 1828), “Unhappy Mother!,” from “The Disasters of War,” 1808 – 17. Etching, aquatint and drypoint on laid paper, 5 5/16 × 8 inches (image). Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Gift of James B. Anderson. GMOA 1985.11.50.
William Underwood Eiland, Director
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