White Nurse provides a psychedelic road map to political conflict in the 1960s. At the center of the work, a dripping splash of red punctuates an image representing America’s perception of communism’s encroachment. Above it, the titular white nurse—a casualty of the nation’s military-industrial complex—is crucified by high-ranking officers from America and elsewhere in the name of money and religion. Peter Saul used grotesque and exaggerated caricatures to emphasize his distaste for the violence of the Vietnam War, the intensity of Cold War propaganda, and the rapid growth of militarized society.
