Beginning March 3, Syracuse University will be the first-and only scheduled-East Coast stop for "To Never Forget: Faces of the Fallen," an exhibition of more than 1,400 5" x 7" paintings of the U.S. military casualties in Iraq since March 2003, in remembrance of lives lost during the war. The exhibit runs March 3-April 1 on the first floor wall of the Shaffer Art Building and is free and open to the public. An opening reception will take place March 3 at 5 p.m.
The initial "Faces of the Fallen" originated when an art faculty member at California's College of Marin began the project after reading a story in The New York Times on U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. Faculty and students at the college painted, drew and produced more than 1, 100 portrait prints of the faces of soldiers killed since the war began.
Stephen Zaima, professor of painting in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, arranged to bring the exhibit to SU. Students, faculty, staff and Syracuse community members will paint an additional 350 portraits of soldiers who have died since the exhibit began at the College of Marin in November 2004.
Commercial Art Supply donated the 5" x 7" panels that will be used for the portraits. While the majority of the paintings that will be on display are traditional, frontal portraits of faces, gray profile panels will be used when no photo image of a particular solider is available.
"The SU and Syracuse communities have generously taken this traveling art exhibition and added to the portraits of fallen U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The exhibit is not meant to take a position on the merits of the war, nor does it attempt to encompass all of the war's causalities. The handmade artworks respectfully put faces to the names and numbers of the fallen," says Zaima.
A score of media outlets have profiled "Faces of the Fallen," including ABC and the Washington Post. The College of Marin has received warm responses from family, friends and others reflecting on the loss of life; some have asked for portraits of fallen loved ones, while others have requested the exhibit tour the country. All of the portraits in the exhibition will eventually be given to the families of the soldiers depicted.
Hours for the exhibit are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.; and weekends 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Paid parking is available in Comstock Avenue lots. For more information, contact the Studio Arts department at (315) 443-4613.
