But there's another side to Bush's portraits that is harder to articulate. Bush's paintings are not memorials to the glorious dead, of course, but celebrations of the living. If Bush's paintings reach for something, it's not atonement. Bush's portraits connect with our empathy for surviving veterans, while wishing away the difficult question of whether their sacrifice was worth it. The building of national war memorials in Washington DC is regulated by the Commemorative Works Act.

Source: CNN October 07, 2019 10:30 UTC