Peter Saul

Saigon

1967

Colorful abstract artwork with distorted figures, musical notes, and vibrant shapes. Text includes "White Boys" and "Version."
Colorful abstract artwork with distorted figures, musical notes, and vibrant shapes. Text includes "White Boys" and "Version."

Recto

At first glance, the Day-Glo palette, lively composition, and exaggerated figures of Peter Saul’s Saigon seem cartoon-like, even whimsical. But the painting offers a biting critique of American policy during the Vietnam War. In a war-torn environment that includes uprooted palm trees, a river of blood, and a spiked American bomb, Saul depicts a voluptuous Vietnamese girl who has been trussed and labeled “Innocent Virgin.” A couple of American GIs are shown drinking Coca-Cola as they rape, dismember, and torture the girl’s family. The chaos is heightened by Saul’s rendering of the figures, including a headless, three-star officer in blue, two blasted Vietcong guerillas, and a nightmarish profusion of body parts. In the canvas’s lower corners, old-fashioned Oriental-style letters spell out “White Boys Torturing and Raping the People of Saigon: High Class Version”—emphasizing Saul’s condemnation of the war’s hypocrisies.

Not on view

Date
1967

Classification
Paintings

Medium
Acrylic, oil, enamel, and fiber-tipped pen on canvas

Dimensions
Overall: 93 1/4 × 142 1/4 in. (236.9 × 361.3 cm)

Accession number
69.103

Credit line
Purchase, with funds from the Friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art

Rights and reproductions
© 2019 Peter Saul/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), N.Y.

API
artworks/1388

Peter Saul
12 works in the collection, 6 exhibitions

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