Jirí Anderle - Soldier, Son and Wife, from the series Cycle: Illusion and Reality

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Jirí Anderle (Czech, b. 1936), Soldier, Son and Wife, from the series Cycle: Illusion and Reality, 1980, drypoint, mezzotint, and photograph, gift in memory of Jacques Z. Baruch by Mrs. Anne Baruch, 1988.40

 

Both print and photograph in this work portray a World War I soldier, surrounded by his own family members, as noted in the title. Anderle’s series, Cycle: Illusion and Reality, contains variations on this same circle of characters. He uses the actual photographs as a portrait of the formal, noble soldier, while his prints reach a more psychological level. The black splatter of ink on the soldier represents a piercing, a shattering of the soldier’s external aesthetic of bravery and courage. Anderle reminds viewers that underneath it all, every soldier is merely a human body. Anderle suggests that all bodies, regardless of military rank, are vulnerable in that they can be punctured, wounded, and destroyed, especially in a war zone. The blood (ink) that spills onto the floor of the imagined space of the print can be seen as both the literal spilling of blood due to injury and the rupture of the soldier’s heart as he sees and experiences such tragedy.

Erin Green

Catalogue
Jirí Anderle - Soldier, Son and Wife, from the series Cycle: Illusion and Reality