Painting War : George Plante's Combat Art in World War II

Examines the Scottish artist George Plante and how his art served an alliance. The most critical of World War II alliances, the longest lasting, and in many ways the most unique was that of Britain and the United States. Theirs was a bond based on shared democratic principles that was altogether different from the cooperation of necessity with Stalin's Soviet Union. The wartime production of propaganda art provides a little-known example of one way the otherwise much studied Anglo-American relationship was built up and sustained. George Plante did not enter World War II as an artist, but as a volunteer radio operator in the British Merchant Navy. There, he spent more than two years engaged in the long running and fiercely fought Battle of the Atlantic ploughing his way between Britain and the United States. But while dodging U-boats and battling the elements, he never stopped painting. Every time his tanker docked in New York he pursued contacts in the art and advertising worlds, hoping to interest them in his latest work and persistently promoting his talent. Even in the midst of a devastating conflict he never lost sight of his devotion to his art, and very quickly he caught the attention of agents of the British Ministry of Information (MOI) and of the War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC). They recruited him to use his paintings of the war at sea for what was seen as a vital effort to secure American support for Britain. In March 1943, Plante's nautical days ended abruptly and he was reassigned to work closely with the Americans in Egypt and Italy - this time, to use his art as overt propaganda both to demonise the Nazi and Fascist enemy, and to arouse opposition to them among occupied peoples under their control. Plante's unusual wartime career spanned three continents moving from the North Atlantic to North Africa and the Mediterranean. Both at sea and on land, Plante's war was far from the policy making strategic or even operational level. He took no actions nor made any decisions that directly changed the course of the war. Rather, the decisions he was called upon to make dealt with colour, style and layout. He was just one very talented man with unusual opportunities and a job to do. Yet seeing the war through George Plante's vivid and articulate letters and memoir and through his art adds a granular ground level view that both expands and enriches the historical record.