Bombardier

Bombardier
John Lawrence Doyle

Artist Biography
Acquisition Number: 79.39.9
Medium: Lithograph on paper
Size: 41 1/2 x 29 1/2 in.
Date: 1976
Credit: gift of Mr. Ted Luntz

John Lawrence Doyle was known for his lithographs reflecting his fascination with the human condition. For over a decade, Doyle studied ethnology and anthropology. Directly after the end of the Vietnam War, and in anticipation of the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976, Doyle created a series of 11 lithographs - "Sharpshooters 76;" which presented soldiers from wars of America’s past in chronological order. From World War II is "Bombardier," a U.S. B-29 bomber, recognizable as such through the windows we look through to view the bomber. The Boeing B-29 was the most capable bomber of WWII, flying faster and at higher altitudes than other bombers, enabling long-range systematic bombing. Doyle's "Bombardier" rides on a bomb through the night sky, looking down at his bombsight device. Through this work, Doyle hints at the dehumanizing impact of technology in war and how it enables indiscriminate killing at great distances on anonymous "targets." Doyle explained: “I wanted to do something that people at the time didn’t particularly want to deal with — war. Particularly, coming so close to the end of the Vietnam era. Folks just sort of wanted to forget it. I also wanted to show that the history of this country is a rather bloody affair, a war every twenty years or so. Courageous no doubt, but dehumanizing nonetheless. This dehumanizing process is what I hoped to show through the evolution of the wars, from the somewhat gentlemanly conducted affair of the Revolution to the dehumanized slaughter of Vietnam.”