Boy in a helmet

The drawing 'Boy in a helmet' is one of a series of paintings, drawings and prints dealing directly with the war. In it the artist expresses his vision of the implicit violence and dehumanising consequences of being a soldier in the war. Counihan began using this image from 1967 and the Australian War Memorial also holds an earlier, and far more violent and extreme, painted version. In the drawing Counihan depicts the young Australian soldier as though shocked in mental incapacity or suffering withdrawal as a result of his experiences. It is a far more humanistic representation than the painting where the soldier appears ghoul like, anguished and out of control.