'Faces of the Fallen,' Art of War Dead

NPR | By Art Silverman

Published March 23, 2005 at 12:00 AM EST

Rodney Nightingale and his wife Towina Nightingale, of Highland, Ind., embrace after seeing a portrait of her son, Army Ranger Nathan Stahl, at the "Faces of the Fallen" exhibit at Arlington National Cemetery, March 22, 2005.

The opening of an art exhibit at Arlington National Cemetery showing more than 1,300 portraits of U.S. military personnel killed in Afghanistan and Iraq brings together artists and families of the dead.

Families came from 44 states for a chance to see a loved one memorialized, and to meet each other and some of the approximately 200 artists who contributed to the project.

The portraits, each rising from the end of a metal pole, are the same size -- 6 by 8 inches -- but their form varies. "Oils, acrylics, monochromatic charcoal sketches, montages, abstract -- some would not feel out of place in an exhibition of Norman Rockwell paintings; others owe more to Pablo Picasso," NPR's Art Silverman says.

The exhibit is open until Sept. 5, 2005, at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, located at Arlington National Cemetery. A U.S. tour may follow.