Tate Modern (Vietnam Review)

 Today I visited the Tate modern gallery i viewed a collection called 'Transformed visions'. Leon Golub an American artist had a piece displayed called Vietnam II which he made in 1973.The piece was done using acrylic paint and linen material and is the size of a gallery wall. The piece features a group of soldiers pointing there guns towards a group of civilians. The ethnicity of the soldiers is not made clear but by my understanding of the Vietnam war I think that they are American military pointing their weapons at the Vietnamese civilians. The artist has tried to give the american soldiers a negative look by making there skin tone red and they're clothing dark. Whereas he made the Vietnamese civilians skin a normal tone and they're clothing is predominately white with black marks that look like dirt due to poverty, which makes them look far more vulnerable and also suggests they are victims and more pure than the soldiers. The contrast in power is further shown by what is behind the subjects behind the soldiers is a tank which suggests power and force whereas behind the civilians there is what appears to be a burning shack which shows they leave of poverty the civilians are in and also the level of destruction that the soldiers are causing. The piece evokes sympathy in the viewer for the civilians and evokes anger towards the soldiers. The piece is actually painted in a way that suggests action and movement with the strong sharp lines and variety of colour and shading. overall i would say the piece is very successful as it gives the reader a good view int how the artist viewed the Vietnam war and evokes the emotions that the artist was clearly trying to portray.

Fig.1 (Owned my author, 2013)