The Australian War Memorial has been sending Official War Artists overseas since World War One to capture the Australian experience of war.
Afghanistan war artist Ben Quilty has chosen to show the impact of war on those affected rather than the war itself.
Sent to Afghanistan in 2011, Archibald Prize-winning Quilty visited Kabul, Kandahar and Tarin Kowt to meet Australian service personnel.
“Once I was there, it became very apparent that the story was about the people,” said Quilty.
“I wanted to portray the way they felt more than the way they looked. And the uniform is such a way of threatening an enemy and showing their muscularity in all its muscular style - and they are big men.
"The flesh is what's injured in a war, the flesh is the first point of entry for a bullet and I wanted it to symbolise the frailty of emotion that surrounds someone who has to deal with that.”
He developed a friendship with Air Commodore John Oddie, former Deputy Commander, Joint Task Force 633 in Middle East, who says these paintings help communicate the pain that soldiers and their families live with.
“Society doesn't always understand because they don't walk around with a badge that says 'we're doing it tough',” said Air Commodore Oddie.
“So I think what's Ben's doing is bringing the true underlying emotion of service and its relationship with our society - which has perhaps waned a little bit in recent years - but is now firmly back on the table with Ben's leadership, fantastic,” he added.
Over the years, there's been more and more understanding of the psychology of war. Art has reflected that change. Even with so many photographers and journalists on location in conflict zones, war artists continue to offer another representation - another interpretation - of Australia's war efforts, and of the impact of war.
Quilty's brief reflects that, said Dr Brendan Nelson, Director of the Australian War Memorial.
“Instead of bringing back beautiful landscapes of Afghanistan and paintings of our soldiers in heroic battles or flying planes in and out and the like, we said look, can you show us a feeling inside the Australian solider and the men and women who are in Afghanistan for us?” said Dr Nelson.
“And so what he's done is beyond anything we could have asked for. You just have to look at any of these paintings. It's not what you see, it's how you feel.”
WATCH MICHELLE HANNA'S REPORT ON YOUTUBE:
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH BEN QUILTY ON YOUTUBE:
