The United States Army Art Program or U.S. Army Combat Art Program is a U.S. Army program to create artwork documenting its involvements in war and peacetime engagements. The art collection associated
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.
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.
On Guard at Sunset (1991) by SFC Peter G. Varisano, an example of a painting made for the United States Army Collection
American official war artists have been part of the American military since 1917. Artists are unlike the objective camera lens which records only a single instant and no more. The war artist captures
Rice distribution at Carrefour in Haiti after the earthquake in 2010. Oil sketch by Sgt. Kristopher Battles, USMC