Visual Arts - After the fall

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks triggered outpourings of impromptu remembrance, from artwork by schoolchildren left at New York City fire stations to flowers left at Ground Zero. But America’s diplomatic community was a recipient of expressions of grief, too. In the Department of State traveling exhibition After 9/11: Messages from the World and Images of Ground Zero, packing crates with glass tops offer a window into the materials — artwork, condolence letters, quilts, Yankee baseball caps — sent to American embassies and consulates after the fall of the twin towers.

In After 9/11, those condolences have become memorials. The human desire to create souvenirs of tragedy — as this exhibit does — seems as innate as the desire to remember happier times.

Though some of the most moving evocations of grief come from ordinary people, from children to diplomats, there are official commemorations as well, such as Joel Meyerowitz’s 30-by-40-inch images (culled from some 5,000 photographs) that he took as the only photographer given access to the Ground Zero site. Most are in an expected Life magazine documentary tradition, showing the ancient-looking ruins of the disaster site or rescue workers posing with their German shepherds. The more dramatic and successful works, such as “Welders in the North Tower,” convey the nightmarish physical magnitude of the attacks and the Sisyphian task of clearing Ground Zero. And visual metaphors abound in images like “Firemen Rescue Team” — of a group of muscled, mustached firefighters at rest — which suggest both memorial statuary and the formal tableaux of a Delacroix or Caravaggio painting.

Implicit in the Carter Library and Museum’s hosting of After 9/11 is the museum’s agenda of conflict resolution. On the third anniversary of Sept. 11, the exhibit inspires intense nostalgia for a time when the world was united in grief. That outpouring of sympathy tapped into the deepest wells of human experience beyond borders and allegiances. It is also a bitter reminder of the souring of good will that also has occurred in the wake of the tragedy.After 9/11: Messages from the World and Images of Ground Zero runs through Jan. 2 at the Carter Library and Museum, 441 Freedom Parkway. Mon.-Sat., 9 a.m.-4:45 p.m.; Sun., noon-4:45 p.m. $7 adults; $5 seniors, military and students with ID; free for children 16 and younger. 404-865-7100. www.jimmycarterlibrary.org.