United States Army Art Program

The U.S. Army Art Program or United States Army Combat Art Program is a program created by the United States Army to create artwork for museums and other programs sponsored by the US Army. The collection associated with the program is held by the United States Army Center of Military History, as part of their Museums collection.

The Army's official interest in art originated in World War I when eight artists (see the list at ) were commissioned as captains in the Corps of Engineers and were sent to Europe to record the activities of the American Expeditionary Forces. At the end of the war most of the team's artwork went to the Smithsonian Institution, which at that time was the custodian of Army historical property and art.

There was no Army program for acquiring art during the interwar years, but with the advent of World War II the Corps of Engineers, drawing on its World War I experience, established a War Art Unit in early 1943. The Associated American Artists helped the Army recruit artists and the War department established a War Art Advisory Committee, a select group of civilian art experts, who selected artists to work in the program. By the spring of 1943 the committee had selected 42 artists: 23 active duty military and 19 civilians. These artists included Reginald Marsh, Jack Levine, Joe Jones, Mitchell Siporin, Aaron Bohrod, and Henry Vernum Poor. The first artists were sent to the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II, but in May 1943 Congress withdrew funding from the program and the War Art Unit was inactivated. The Army assigned the military artists to other units and released the civilians.

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