United States Army Art Program

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.

[citation needed] The effort to create a visual record of the American military experience in World War II was then taken up by the private sector in two different programs, one by Life magazine and one by Abbott Laboratories, a large medical supply company.

A deal was struck between then editor of Life, Daniel Longwell, and the Secretary of War for the artists to receive the same treatment as news correspondents.

These two programs resulted in a wide range of work by distinguished artists, such as Marion Greenwood and John Steuart Curry,[8][9] who had the opportunity to observe the war firsthand.

The exhibit was designed to contain highly realistic works, such as those of U.S. Army artist Master Sergeant Martin Cervantez.

Cervantez commented on his pieces on display in Reuters on the nature of the exhibit: "If a soldier takes his family to the museum, I want them to be able to say, 'That's what it was like.

War Art Unit artists Aaron Bohrod (left) and Howard Cook with the U.S. Army on Rendova Island , June 1943
Lucien Labaudt was one of the War Art Unit artists who joined Life magazine when the program was abandoned. He was killed in a plane crash 12 December 1943, en route to China — the only Life artist-correspondent to die in the war. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
When the War Art Units were dissolved, Technical Sgt. Manuel Bromberg was reassigned to the Historical Section in London and could continue creating images of the war. He was one of the uniformed artists who formed the nucleus of an Army Combat Art Program within the Historical Branch of the War Department in 1944. [ 3 ]
On Guard at Sunset (1991) by SFC Peter G. Varisano, an example of a painting made for the United States Army Collection