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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview With Avery Chenoweth
Aired February 08, 2003 - 07:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
O'BRIEN: All throughout history, artists have used their skills to capture the drama of the battlefield. Even in modern times, artists play an important role in showing us the realities of war.
Joining us from Washington is retired Marine Corps Colonel Avery Chenoweth. He has served as a combat artist and is an author of an impressive coffee-table book entitled "The Art of War."
Colonel, good to have you with us.
COL. AVERY CHENOWETH (RET.), U.S. MARINE CORPS COMBAT ARTIST: Well, good to be with you, Miles.
O'BRIEN: A lot of people would think art and war are a contradiction in terms, are they not?
CHENOWETH: Well, not exactly, because art is one of three methods of recording history. Obviously writing, and now photography in the last century or so. But art is the oldest, all the way from early cave paintings, Egyptian wall paintings. And so artists have been in combat, but it's only in recent years, since the Civil War, that artists have made a name for themselves in the recording of military history.
O'BRIEN: Let's look at...
CHENOWETH: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'BRIEN: I'm sorry, finish your thought, if you like.
CHENOWETH: Well, I've put it all together, at least the American phase of it, in a book published by Barnes and Noble that I've titled "Art of War," and I say "Art of War" rather than "The Art of War" because that "the" refers to that military classic of 2,500 years ago that everybody knows, written by Sun-Tzu.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
CHENOWETH: This is not that.
O'BRIEN: All right. Well, let's look at some of your work first, because not only are you the editor of this book, but you also are significantly represented. You spent a fair amount of time depicting the Gulf War.
CHENOWETH: Right. O'BRIEN: And -- which is interesting to me, because in many cases, significant phases of the Gulf War were closed to cameras. The military would not let our cameras cover some of these significant tank battles, for example. Were you in a position to record things that others could not?
CHENOWETH: Well, I probably was. I was driving a Jeep Cherokee right in the middle of the First Marine Division all the way through Kuwait. And let me preface this by saying that I was in the Korean War as a combatant and did some sketches on the side, and that gave me a side career in the Marine Corps Reserve. And I volunteered to go to Vietnam.
But for the Gulf War, I had already retired, and they called me back, put me on full active duty, and my job was to record it visually.
O'BRIEN: So they asked you to do this, and the military, for whatever reason, appreciated the value of this. Why do you suppose they appreciate that?
CHENOWETH: Well, all the military services have great collections of combat art, mostly from the Civil War onward. And...
O'BRIEN: All right, I'm sorry, we got to stop, I've got to ask you -- we've been running through these pictures so quickly, I wanted to talk about them. This one is not one of yours...
CHENOWETH: No, this is World War...
O'BRIEN: ... but it is a very haunting, dramatic -- it's a picture that kind of...
CHENOWETH: That's World War II by the artist Tom Lee. And that's a Marine who was hit on the invasion of Palealu (ph).
O'BRIEN: Right.
CHENOWETH: And I saw that as a kid in "Life" magazine in 1945, and it struck me, it stuck in my memory, and I was delighted to put it into the book. And also met Tom Lee a few years before he died, and I have that picture in the book of him standing next to that painting.
O'BRIEN: So that kind of spurred you on to your -- to do what you did?
CHENOWETH: Well, in a way. And I must point out that combat art is not meant to glorify art or to propagandize or anything like that.
O'BRIEN: But it could...
CHENOWETH: It's (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'BRIEN: ... it can do that, can't it? In many cases, it can.
CHENOWETH: Yes, in many cases it can. And mostly that is done by illustrators who were not there.
O'BRIEN: Right.
CHENOWETH: So all of the artists in my book were actually in battle, either participating or observing. And many were civilians. In World War II we had, well, Tom Lee, whom we just saw. Many were civilians, for "Life" magazine, for Abbott Laboratories.
In the book, I've uncovered 680 American artists who went to war from the Revolution through the Gulf War. And I've illustrated about 200 or 300 of them in the book.
O'BRIEN: Colonel Avery Chenoweth, retired, United States Marine Corps, who has had a front row seat to battles since the Korean War and has offered us up this impressive coffee-table book, "Art of War."
Thanks very much for being with us on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
CHENOWETH: It's been my pleasure.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
O'BRIEN: All throughout history, artists have used their skills to capture the drama of the battlefield. Even in modern times, artists play an important role in showing us the realities of war.>
Aired February 8, 2003 - 07:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
O'BRIEN: All throughout history, artists have used their skills to capture the drama of the battlefield. Even in modern times, artists play an important role in showing us the realities of war.
Joining us from Washington is retired Marine Corps Colonel Avery Chenoweth. He has served as a combat artist and is an author of an impressive coffee-table book entitled "The Art of War."
Colonel, good to have you with us.
COL. AVERY CHENOWETH (RET.), U.S. MARINE CORPS COMBAT ARTIST: Well, good to be with you, Miles.
O'BRIEN: A lot of people would think art and war are a contradiction in terms, are they not?
CHENOWETH: Well, not exactly, because art is one of three methods of recording history. Obviously writing, and now photography in the last century or so. But art is the oldest, all the way from early cave paintings, Egyptian wall paintings. And so artists have been in combat, but it's only in recent years, since the Civil War, that artists have made a name for themselves in the recording of military history.
O'BRIEN: Let's look at...
CHENOWETH: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'BRIEN: I'm sorry, finish your thought, if you like.
CHENOWETH: Well, I've put it all together, at least the American phase of it, in a book published by Barnes and Noble that I've titled "Art of War," and I say "Art of War" rather than "The Art of War" because that "the" refers to that military classic of 2,500 years ago that everybody knows, written by Sun-Tzu.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
CHENOWETH: This is not that.
O'BRIEN: All right. Well, let's look at some of your work first, because not only are you the editor of this book, but you also are significantly represented. You spent a fair amount of time depicting the Gulf War.
CHENOWETH: Right. O'BRIEN: And -- which is interesting to me, because in many cases, significant phases of the Gulf War were closed to cameras. The military would not let our cameras cover some of these significant tank battles, for example. Were you in a position to record things that others could not?
CHENOWETH: Well, I probably was. I was driving a Jeep Cherokee right in the middle of the First Marine Division all the way through Kuwait. And let me preface this by saying that I was in the Korean War as a combatant and did some sketches on the side, and that gave me a side career in the Marine Corps Reserve. And I volunteered to go to Vietnam.
But for the Gulf War, I had already retired, and they called me back, put me on full active duty, and my job was to record it visually.
O'BRIEN: So they asked you to do this, and the military, for whatever reason, appreciated the value of this. Why do you suppose they appreciate that?
CHENOWETH: Well, all the military services have great collections of combat art, mostly from the Civil War onward. And...
O'BRIEN: All right, I'm sorry, we got to stop, I've got to ask you -- we've been running through these pictures so quickly, I wanted to talk about them. This one is not one of yours...
CHENOWETH: No, this is World War...
O'BRIEN: ... but it is a very haunting, dramatic -- it's a picture that kind of...
CHENOWETH: That's World War II by the artist Tom Lee. And that's a Marine who was hit on the invasion of Palealu (ph).
O'BRIEN: Right.
CHENOWETH: And I saw that as a kid in "Life" magazine in 1945, and it struck me, it stuck in my memory, and I was delighted to put it into the book. And also met Tom Lee a few years before he died, and I have that picture in the book of him standing next to that painting.
O'BRIEN: So that kind of spurred you on to your -- to do what you did?
CHENOWETH: Well, in a way. And I must point out that combat art is not meant to glorify art or to propagandize or anything like that.
O'BRIEN: But it could...
CHENOWETH: It's (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'BRIEN: ... it can do that, can't it? In many cases, it can.
CHENOWETH: Yes, in many cases it can. And mostly that is done by illustrators who were not there.
O'BRIEN: Right.
CHENOWETH: So all of the artists in my book were actually in battle, either participating or observing. And many were civilians. In World War II we had, well, Tom Lee, whom we just saw. Many were civilians, for "Life" magazine, for Abbott Laboratories.
In the book, I've uncovered 680 American artists who went to war from the Revolution through the Gulf War. And I've illustrated about 200 or 300 of them in the book.
O'BRIEN: Colonel Avery Chenoweth, retired, United States Marine Corps, who has had a front row seat to battles since the Korean War and has offered us up this impressive coffee-table book, "Art of War."
Thanks very much for being with us on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
CHENOWETH: It's been my pleasure.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
O'BRIEN: All throughout history, artists have used their skills to capture the drama of the battlefield. Even in modern times, artists play an important role in showing us the realities of war.>
