The Australian War Memorial has built up an eclectic art collection over many years. There is George Lambert's painting of The Nek and Will Longstaff's of the Menin Gate but there is also Rover Thomas's depiction of massacres of First Nations people in the East Kimberley and Shirley McNamara's crucifix, with its implicit references to First Nations deaths defending Country. Older style portraits by official war artists William Dargie and Ivor Hele have been joined by the more contemporary works of Ben Quilty and ex de Medici, also official war artists. (List of official war artists.)
Given the wide range of the Memorial's collection, the recent Quadrant article by Vietnam veteran, Colonel Peter O'Brien, is difficult to fathom. Under the heading, 'How the AWM "honours" those who serve', O'Brien is critical of Melbourne artist and Afghanistan veteran, Kat Rae, and specifically of her work Reckoning, which is a commentary on the Brereton report.
O'Brien also targets Rae's work Deathmin, winner of the 2024 Napier Waller Art Prize awarded by the Memorial, and queries 'the qualifications of the AWM Napier Wallace judges who could consider this, in any way, as serious art'. O'Brien goes on to suggest that 'the Napier Waller Prize seems rather more inclined to celebrate wokeness than the achievements in war of our servicemen and servicewomen'. He sprays vigorously at some recent Napier Waller winners (illustrations included) and harrumphs, 'I would have thought it is not the role of the AWM to provide a sheltered workshop for less than talented "artists" and misfits'.
O'Brien goes on to discuss aspects of the Brereton report and related issues and how the Memorial should address them. He concludes that 'there is no place for this type of self-flagellation in the Australian War Memorial. Or there shouldn’t be. The museum is simply an adjunct to the Memorial, whose sole function is to remember and celebrate the achievements of all who have died for our country.'
Quite rightly - and very politely - artist Kat Rae responded in Quadrant. 'I agree', she said, 'that we should remember and celebrate the heroism of our service people, but this is not the only function of the Australian War Memorial. Importantly, the Memorial’s role is also to remember the truly horrendous cost of war. The institution’s key message is that visitors leave resolvedly stating, "never again".
Rae contests O'Brien's dismissal of Deathmin as not 'serious art'.
It is the actual paperwork of my late veteran husband, fighting to receive the help he needed after he returned from war. He mostly did not get the support he was owed. His anger was violently turned on me, and he later suicided. Deathmin is also then the actual paperwork of my efforts to receive help and the truth from institutions as a war widow, mother of a two-year-old orphaned dependant, and a veteran. At my height and my late husband’s weight, the work may not be to O’Brien’s personal artistic tastes, but I contend that it is every bit defined as art ...
The Napier Waller judges agreed: 'This sculpture is a powerful evocation of the burden carried by so many families after the death by suicide of current or former service personnel'. The judges were: Matt Anderson, Director of the Memorial; General Angus Campbell, Chief of the Australian Defence Force; Bree Pickering, Director of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia; Penelope Grist, Acting Director, Art Collections, Parliament House of Australia; eX de Medici, former official war artist; Laura Webster, Head of Art at the Memorial
Rae goes on to discuss other paintings, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, and the Memorial's attempts to portray the impacts of war on those who fight it and on their families.
O’Brien misses an important point about the function of the Australian War Memorial. It is not meant to celebrate an airbrushed, "boy’s own adventure" version of history. It is to remind us of the true cost of war ... It is to remind politicians of the price our nation pays when they decide to send Australians to war; and their responsibility to care for veterans and their families upon return. For this reason, it is imperative that the walls of the Australian War Memorial reflect reality.
Peter O'Brien is a regular contributor to Quadrant. In 2022, he organised a petition against the Memorial's plans for a broader and deeper depiction of the Australian (Frontier) Wars.
Kat (Kathryn) Rae served in the full-time army for 20 years, having deployed to the Middle East three times. She is now an artist and her works are held in the War Memorial, the Mebourne Shrine of Remembrance, and the Australian National Veterans Art Museum.
Picture credit: Vassily Vereshchagin, The apotheosis of war (1871) (Wikimedia Commons).
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