Untitled ("Medal Winners") 1971

Curator: Let's consider Donald Blumberg's "Untitled (Medal Winners)," a poignant piece from around 1969 held here at the Harvard Art Museums. It presents a newspaper clipping. Editor: Immediately, the weight of those faces hits you, doesn't it? The grainy black and white enhances that somber, almost ghostly feel. Curator: Precisely. Blumberg uses the newspaper format, "People in the News," to spotlight these fallen soldiers—men awarded medals posthumously. The stark juxtaposition of honor and loss is striking. Editor: Yes, it’s a formal trick, reframing the fleeting news into something...monumental. The rigid grid, those solemn portraits—it’s less a celebration, more a memorial. Curator: I see it as Blumberg using the formal structure to really force the viewer to confront the individual human cost of the conflict. Editor: It works. I am left feeling deeply unsettled. Curator: As intended, I think. It really lingers with you.