New acquisition.
Toward the end of his life, Horace Pippin remarked that "World War I broght out all the art in me." He had served in France as part of the all-Black 369th Infantry Regiment, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters. Pippin was one of almost 100,000 American soldiers wounded in this battle and was permanently injured by a sniper at Argonne. Several years after his return to his native West Chester, Pippin - without formal training - began creating burnt wood engravings and within a few years had turned to painting in oil.
Gas Alarm Outpost, Argonne is one of only seven of Pippin's World War I-related paintings. In this haunting composition, the artist depicts three soldiers assigned to sound an alarm when they heard the hiss of a gas cylinder. Pippin reworked the color of the sky several times making it increasingly lighter. In adopting a brilliant shade of blue, he emphasizes two ominous details painted in dark contrast: relentless strands of razor [sic] wire and a soldier parachuting overhead. This iconic painting was one of the most visible works in Pippin's lifetime, being shown in exhibitions regularly beginning the very year it was completed.
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