Carry On

Artist / Maker Christian Petersen (Danish - American, 1885 - 1961)

Date1942

MediumPainted plaster

Dimensions33 x 55 x 29 in. (83.8 x 139.7 x 73.7 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of Charlotte Petersen; Memorial Union, ISU, Ames, Iowa; CPAC, Transferred to CPAC. In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, Christian Petersen Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberUM2007.10

Status

Not on view

Collections

Label TextSoon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 brought war to America, Petersen began work on a sculpture that would express the awful continuity from World War I to World War II. He revived an earlier sculptural idea that he had used in Carry On, in which a dying young soldier lifts a torch to pass on to other fighters. Now he joined the figure of that young man, a World War I doughboy, with a second one, a G.I. of World War II. Eliminating the torch, Petersen makes his point by placing the G.I. beside the soldier from the earlier war, ready to carry on the renewed struggle. Both soldiers look outward, the doughboy straining to lift his head, the G.I. with a grim and determined focus.

Published ReferencesIowa State Daily, Dec. 5, 1942; Image: Des Moines Tribune, Nov. 26, 1942; The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), Dec. 27, 1942; The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), Nov. 29, 1942; Wallace's' Farmer, Col 68, Issue 1, 1943; Iowa State Daily, June 21, 1961 listed as "Men of Two Wars"; Des Moines Tribune, May 11,1964.

Object Titles[com.gallerysystems.emuseum.core.entities.ObjectTitle@a3a1]

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