Traveling Exhibitions
World War II Watercolors of Robert Andrew Parker

Robert Andrew Parker
American (Norfolk, Virginia, 1927 - ) lives in Connecticut
Untitled from "How to Kill", 1970
watercolor on paper
Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection:
Purchase, Tabriz Fund and Museum Purchase Plan of the NEA. 1971.009.00l.046

Violence is not a subject much associated with watercolor, but in these works by Robert Andrew Parker the introspective and even gentle aspects of the medium are eloquently brought to bear on themes of devastation and war. Acclaimed painter and illustrator Robert Andrew Parker composed this delicate series to accompany a film produced during his Guggenheim Fellowship (1964-1970). The works are based on six poems by Keith Douglas, which chronicle Douglas' student days at Oxford in 1941, through the carnage of WWII in North Africa, and culminate in a premonition of death.