I’ve written before about combat artists, soldiers called on (or inspired to) record their experiences in combat and in other aspects of a soldier’s life.

Starting in World War I, the U.S. Army had a program of officially designated combat artists. Remarkably, they were told to record their experiences directly as they saw them, and not reserved or slanted as nationalistic propaganda.

That principle seems to have been adhered to over the years, so we get to see soldiers’ lives through their own eyes, largely unaltered by the otherwise expected filters of military bureaucracy and politicians.

The Army has a collection of hundreds of works, spanning generations of artists, that its curator calls “the most famous collection no one’s ever heard of”.

Selections have been drawn from that collection as part of a new exhibition titled Art of the American Soldier that opened yesterday at the National Constitution Center here in Philadelphia.

The online preview is arranged along a horizontally scrolling 100 year timeline, from WWI to the present day. You can hover your mouse over individual images for brief credits, and click for more detailed information and larger view, that can in turn be clicked on for a larger image.

Art of the American Soldier is on view until January 10, 2011.

(Images above: George Harding, Lester G. Hornby, Franklin Boggs, Howard Brodie, Paul MacWilliams, Frank M. Thomas, Sieger Hartgers, Peter G. Varisano, Elzie Golden)

Philadelphia artist Carlo Russo paints landscapes and figurative work, but his emphasis is on still life.

Russo is one of those still life painters who manages to convey a feeling of stopped time in his paintings, a sensation of quiet focus and contemplative stillness. His portrayals of rough textured crockery, weathered wood, and tarnished copper pots bring to mind the textural marvels of Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin.

Though his still life subjects also include such staples as fruit and flowers, Russo is more likely to choose pumpkins or gourds, objects that are rich with texture. In his recent work, he is also experimenting with other textural challenges, painting difficult objects like feather dusters and sheepskin.

Russo studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He teaches classes at the Woodmere Art Museum and occasionally takes on students in his studio. His South Philadelphia studio will be on the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours event on October 2-3 of this year.

Russo currently the subject of a one man show at the F.A.N. Gallery here in Philadelphia, that ends this Saturday on September 25th, 2010.