HERRON PROFESSOR TO SEE PAINTINGS CREATED WHILE IN VIETNAM WAR FOR FIRST TIME IN 30 YEARS

INDIANAPOLIS - They carried paintbrushes instead of guns. Their mission was to document military and civilian life in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. There were no restrictions - no places they couldn't venture, nothing they couldn't see. Fourteen men throughout the war made up this group of combat artists, men chosen to witness and then record their observations onto paper in the form of sketches and paintings.

One of those men, Herron School of Art Professor Richard Nickolson, will see his works for the first time in 30 years when an exhibit of his work, borrowed from the Center for Military History in Washington D.C., opens at the Indianapolis Art Center on Friday, Dec. 8 from 6-8 p.m.

Throughout his time in Vietnam, Nickolson created nearly 100 paintings and sketches, only about 30 of which survived. Many of them were lost while sitting on a dock in Thailand waiting to be shipped back to the U.S. On Friday, Nickolson will learn which of his works survived and which did not.

The exhibit, which will be open through Jan. 7, begins with a sketch book of drawings that earned Nickolson his ticket into the Combat Artists, then focuses on 16 works completed during the war and finally concludes with some examples of his work today.

Nickolson was drafted in 1969, just after completing his first year in the fine arts graduate program at IU.

During training, he sketched anything and everything to quickly develop a portfolio. When he noticed a sign calling for applications for the next army artist team, he submitted his portfolio and the army soon selected him to become a part of the Combat Artists for Vietnam.

For six months, Nickolson's team traveled Southeast Asia visiting ports, supply centers and construction sites. While others in his group headed out to capture scenes of helicopters and bombers, Nickolson always journeyed into churches, hospitals and schools, looking for local culture. Once, he found himself surrounded by curious swarms of children who had never seen a white person before. On another trip, he ventured out with the postmaster to deliver mail via paddleboat in the jungle.

"We were delivering mail to a Vietnamese family and the old woman, the grandma, was waiting for a letter from her grandson who had been drafted in the Vietnamese army," told Nickolson. "She didn't know where he was and everyday she'd be out in front of her house on the little dock waiting for this boat, but there was nothing from her grandson that day."

When the war was over, Nickolson handed over his paintings and drawings to the army for shipment back to the U.S. to be stored at the Center for Military History where they were inaccessible to the public. For years, Nickolson tried to see his works during visits to Washington D.C., but could never get through the red tape. It wasn't until Indianapolis art collector and Navy Seals veteran Dr. Christopher Stack visited the Center three years ago that Nickolson's work finally saw the light of day. While on a break from a medical conference, Stack was able to get photocopies of some of Nickolson's works and later arranged to borrow many of them for a show in Indianapolis.

Looking back at his portfolio and the photocopies of his work that he has seen so far, Nickolson says it seems to be the work of a different hand. He is proud of that work, however, work that taught him to pay attention to what he is seeing - to become a witness, something he teaches in art classes today. He believes it's the importance of witnessing that keeps the program going today, despite photography and video.

"It's the documentary value of this that's so important that can't be had in any other way," he explained. "It's the value of the individual artists' point of view. These artists were witnesses."

For more information about the exhibit, please call the Indianapolis Art Center at (317) 255-2464. To read Nickolson's artist statement, please log on to www.iupui.edu/news/nickolson.htm.