Attitude counts for everything

At peace: Winters’ painting of war graves on Crete.

Pensive: Michael Winters at the opening of the exhibition at the War Memorial. Photo by Cpl Cameron Jamieson

A time remembered: General Freyberg addresses the troops among the olives, part of the Michael Winters exhibition at the Australian War Memorial.

By Cpl Cameron Jamieson

HE’S been called contemporary and controversial, but his work is captivating.

Michael Winters is an Australian artist with a passion for Crete, and he has melded his love of the island and its mythology with his passion for art and his respect for the Australians who fought there.

A new exhibition showcasing his prints, drawings and paintings of the Battle of Crete in 1941 has now opened at the Australian War Memorial (AWM).

Neither an official war artist or an artist painting at the time of the military operation, Winters’ presence in the AWM marks a new chapter in the memorial’s exploration of war art by introducing contemporary works that offer a retrospective interpretation of the Australian experience of war.

At the opening of his exhibition Looking Back: Australians on Crete Winters said he realised there was a rich and tragic tale to tell of Australians at war when he first visited Crete in the mid 1980s.

“It was a story mixed with all of Crete’s past conflicts and all of the mythology that I love about Crete,” he said.

“So I set myself the task to go back there and live there for a period, so I could weave the tales together.”

Winters researched the period-look of the Australian soldiers at the AWM prior to leaving for Crete in 1990, which has added authenticity to his finished works.

“I also spoke to two diggers who had been captured by the Germans, and they gave me an insight into the event itself and the ethos they felt,” he said.

“I then used all the research to get an Aussie-look in that extreme environment.”

The Allies’ failed battles for the Greek mainland and Crete against the invading German troops have often be labelled as strategic blunders by historians, but through Winters’ work we are reminded that the Greeks were worth fighting for.

We see that the Greeks held their own freedom in high regard, and how that freedom was lost as a result of their stance against the fascist powers.

In Winters’ line art and linocut prints we see the suffering of the civilians, mixed with that of the soldiers set against the mythology of Crete’s past.

It results in a visual fusion of mythology and the countless wars that have been fought across the landscape of Crete, reminding us of how the wheels of warfare have rolled repeatedly through human history.

“Well, I wish we could stop war,” Winters said, “but in the end it’s a human reality that people have to understand.

“As an artist, I have to give a form of artistic recognition to it, and make a point about the tragedy and the sacrifice involved.

“Everything has two extremes to it, and I want to talk about war from a very human point of view, the pathos on one hand and the liberation from tyranny that WWII bought about on the other.”

“It’s a very terrible business, and I want to embroider my work with that fact.”

Winters is grateful for the opportunity to exhibit at the AWM, and looks forward to more such exhibitions by other Australian artists.

“I think it’s important for Australian artists, at times, to look at the issue of war and make it into an artistic journey, perhaps producing work that makes us ponder on the nature of war,” he said.

“That way we can reflect on the tragedies and the triumphs that occur.”

The exhibition continues until August 7 in the AWM’s Special Exhibitions Gallery.