The Ghost Army of World War II

Selected works by Jim Steg created during WWII

The Jim Steg Ghost Army Collection includes 78 charcoal and watercolor drawings reflecting the young artist’s unique experience in WWII. Featuring a series of heartfelt portraits in ink, charcoal, and watercolor, as well as landscape paintings of the world he encountered for the first time, Steg’s Ghost Army work reflects a deep Humanism undeterred by the horrors of war. Jim Steg’s experience as a member of the Ghost Army would make an incalculable impact on both his life and his art.

When the outbreak of WWII interrupted Jim Steg’s artistic education, he volunteered to join the Army’s 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, commonly known as the Ghost Army. Far from your typical soldiers, the Ghost Army was a band of 1000 artists that used costumes, decoys, phony radio transmissions, and other means of deception to outfox the enemy. Although their exploits were kept top secret for over fifty years, the Ghost Army is remembered today as “the first unit in the history of warfare dedicated solely to deception.”

Artists Create War Decoys

Steg and his Ghost Army comrades were tasked with building and deploying decoys such as inflatable tanks, trucks, and artillery, with creative additions like fake tire marks and pre-recorded audio pumped across enemy lines through camouflaged speakers. These elaborate ruses were designed to fool the German regiments and reconnaissance planes into thinking American infantries were located where they were not.

Since many of the members of the Ghost Army were plucked directly from art school, they drew and painted whenever they could find a moment. Between deployments, Ghost Army soldiers staged temporary exhibitions of their wartime art in makeshift venues. During this time, Steg created his first mature body of work, a series of portraits of Russian refugees who were entrusted into the unit’s care. Steg described these works as “spontaneous impressions” of “the people who suffered the most during the war.” These portraits survive today as haunting memorials to their subjects, many of whom would not live to see the war’s end.

The troop proved to be an incredible incubator of young talent. Many of Steg’s comrades went on to have incredibly successful careers in the arts – fashion designer Bill Blass, Abstract Expressionist painter Ellsworth Kelly, photographer Art Kane, and industrial designer Jack Masey, who drew caricatures of Steg and other soldiers of the unit.

Although it is estimated that the Ghost Army saved up to 30,000 lives during the war, their heroism has only recently been acknowledged. After the Ghost Army’s work was declassified in 1996, a wave of books, articles, and documentaries (notably Rick Beyer’s The Ghost Army) has ensured that this amazing story of heroism and creativity will be remembered as a fascinating and unique chapter of America’s greatest conflict.

For exhibition and acquisition opportunities related to the WWII collection, please contact Jan Gilbert.