Spotlight Tour: Beneath the Armor

Student guide Andy Kim will explore the human stories behind three works featuring soldiers on Saturday, Feb. 3. Touching on his experience of 18 months of Korean conscripted military service, he will ask such questions as: how does military service change conscripted soldiers? How does a nation justify individual sacrifices for a greater good? What can artistic depictions of conflict reveal about the societies involved? The tour will move from a scene of a warrior’s farewell to a scene of battle to a scene that indicates a homecoming. Kim will spotlight "Hydria (water jar): Warrior’s farewell" (Greek, c. 550–540 BCE), Charles Wilson Peale’s portrait of General George Washington at Yorktown (1784) and Robert Smullyan Sloan’s 1945 painting of a Black soldier.

Spotlight Tours offer a chance to explore the collections of Harvard Art Museums through the eyes of a Harvard student. Free and open to the public, these tours start outside the museum shop on Saturdays and Sundays at 11am and 2pm. Drop in and join the conversation! Find out what Student Guides are up to anytime on Instagram, @harvardarthappens. Please check in with museum staff at the Admissions desk in Calderwood Courtyard to request to join the tour. Tours are limited to 18 people and are available on a first-come, first-served basis; registration is not required.