No. 320 HEROES AND BEAUTY
18 " W x 24 " H, 45 cm W x 60 cm H
Material Acrylic on Wood
Artist A.H. Clemens
Painted May 2003,
Waiwhetu, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
A ravishingly beautiful woman and magnificent scenery – actually a scene from the Marlborough Sounds in the northern end of New Zealand’s South Island.
The other panels show crosses silhouetted against a red sky and Anzac and Turk soldiers about to do battle in the 1914-18 World War. The soldier in the top right panel is copied from a photograph taken on the morning of action at Chanuk Bair in the Dardanelles. He is to die later that day in battle. He would already have known this as the words of his recently completed final letter home attest. In the bottom left we see Turkish soldiers, some already wounded, immediately prior to battle.
A tribute to the extraordinary courage and actions of so-called ordinary citizens. The scenery and the goddess are merely there as reminders of their sacrifice. Full coloured, contemporary and commanding much of the picture space – but ultimately less permanent in the memory than the grainy images of bravery staring out at us across almost ninety years.
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Last updated 31 October, 2004
