Online Collection
Location: Iwo Jima Room
David E. Richardson
David E. Richardson, a recently retired U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel, is an artist who is known for his abstract style and use of vibrant colors and large geometric forms. While his paintings have hints of military inspiration and symbolism, he has said, “I want to create something beautiful. To me, there are enough disturbing and ironic things in life.”
From Waterford, Michigan, Richardson was taught to draw and paint at an early age by his mother, an artist and teacher. Richardson studied biology and art while attending Harding College in Searcy, Arkansas. Although his primary medium is oil, he also works in acrylic and metal. His latest works, the Shotgun Paintings, on view as part of this exhibition, are derived from his war experience.
The Army and Navy Club Library Trust Fund is honored to have Colonel Richardson’s artwork on display in the John Paul Jones and Iwo Jima rooms beginning on Thursday, March 9. The exhibit will open with a reception at 6:30 pm followed by artist’s remarks and a conversation between attendees and the artist himself.
Organized in partnership with the Army and Navy Club Special Events Committee.
100 Years in the Making
The exhibition explores the fascinating and unusual history of this long-awaited memorial, as well as lesser known stories about the American home front during the War—including wartime events at The Army and Navy Club. The show brings together architectural design plans, drawings and process photos of the proposed sculpture, and an original architectural model of the memorial, along with historic photographs and more. The opening and closing events will feature the 10-foot long scale model of the monumental sculpture designed by Sabin Howard, the foremost practitioner of and authority on modern classical sculpture.
Pivot Point
Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield were the first major foreign crises for the United States after the end of the Cold War. The successful completion of Desert Storm was one of the swiftest in history, which restored the American military to prominence after years of disrepute in the aftermath of Vietnam.
On view in this exhibition, the memorial’s plans, drawings, and designs offer an inspiring vision for the forthcoming memorial.
Approved by Congress and the President in March 2017 and slated for completion in 2021, the National Desert Storm and Desert Shield Memorial will honor and commemorate the events of The Persian Gulf War. The Memorial will be built across from the Vietnam War Memorial at Constitution and 23rd St NW, just north of the Lincoln Memorial.
This exhibition was produced in collaboration with The National Desert Storm War Memorial Association. Please note that the project is still in the development stages, which will lead to changes in the final memorial design.
Mitchell Jamieson, WWII Combat Artist
In 1942, Lieutenant Mitchell Jamieson was commissioned to be one of eight U.S. Naval combat artists charged with creating a visual record of World War II. For the next three years, Jamieson drew and painted all aspects of warfare in both the European and Pacific Theaters, ranging from refugee camps, battlegrounds, and burning villages, to portraits of American soldiers in the tense, quiet days before the fighting began. In dozens of battered, water-stained sketchbooks, he captured the lived experience of combat from his vantage point as an artist and soldier.
After participating in the pivotal invasion of Sicily, Jamieson was one of only two Naval combat artists sent to Normandy for the D-Day invasion. On June 6, 1944, he stood on a combat-loaded LST (Landing Ship, Tank) with hundreds of other soldiers waiting to join the assault waves and demolition parties heading to Utah Beach. He spent the next week living in a foxhole, chronicling with pen and brush the largest seaborne invasion in history. Later he accompanied Allied troops as they moved onward to Cherbourg and Brest, documenting both the liberation they achieved and the destruction they left in their wake.
This exhibition brings together drawings and paintings from Jamieson’s D-Day sketchbooks, many of which are on view for the first time. From the unsettling days preparing for battle aboard the LST, through the Allied landings at Utah, Omaha, and Juno Beaches and the advance into the hedgerows near Cherbourg, to the makeshift burial grounds, returning wounded, and widespread wreckage, it traces D-Day from preparation to aftermath. Together, these works offer a rare and intimate window into one of the most consequential events of modern history.
Jamieson’s life was indelibly marked by his experiences on D-Day. In describing that fateful morning, he wrote, “For so many of us the longest day in history dawned, cheerless and cold, off the coast of Normandy.” His artworks are a testament to the significance of that day and a memorial to the thousands whose lives were cut short on those beaches, and who remain there still.
This exhibition is organized by The Army and Navy Club Library Trust in collaboration with the Jamieson family and estate, with additional loans from the Middendorf Collection.