Deification of a Soldier is one surrealist work that packs a punch. Completed by Yamashita Kikuji in 1967, Deification is a response to the U.S. occupation of Vietnam in the 1950s and 60s as well as a reaction to the global Cold War going on during the same time. Above that, it is a commentary on war as experienced by both the individual and the collective. Yamashita himself was drafted by the Imperial Japanese Army and witnessed firsthand the execution of a prisoner of war. His sensation of helplessness and regret was very personal, yet an experience many shared during the era.
Looking more closely at the work, we can see that it is one central mass made up of many limbs, mouths, and eyes. What distinguishes this work as surrealist is the focus on both pleasure and destruction, or death. In this case it takes the form of the mouths, breasts, and limbs tangled together. This image is not very ‘sexy’ as a whole, but images and objects that are traditionally sexualized make it so.
Likewise, the images of death are too many to count. The barrel of a gun protrudes from the rightmost horse’s ear. The mouths here are open wide, in a soundless scream. The lower half of the work reads like a mass of either teeth or organs. The distinguishable figures here appear as apparitions, and are quite ghastly.
War plays a major role here, seen in the military helmets on both the central head of the mass and the head of a bird-like figure. We see military attire. Beyond that, we see many eyes in the work, all watching the viewer, just as the viewer looks into this mass of flesh– which brings me to the color palette of the work. While it is washed out to some degree, it appears quite fleshy, and involves both warm and cool tones. Splashes of red are the most vibrant, but the overarching colors here are beige and gray.
Pretty horrifying upon close inspection, but what struck me the most about this work was its likeness to a far more famous depiction of war– Guernica by Pablo Picasso. Picasso’s Guernica was created exactly thirty years before Deification, but the subject matter of both sets them together as siblings. Guernica’s grayscale palette and similar tangle of limbs does well to convey the horror and senselessness of war, and is thus regarded as one of the most influential paintings of the 20th century. It is in this same vein that Deification makes an impact on its viewer. It is unclear if Deification pays any homage to Guernica, though looking at both pieces, it is a real possibility. Either that, or the horror of war is so universal that artists decades and thousands of miles apart would produce the same sensation through their work.
Art and Glory 