Sweat Shop
Sweat Shop
Artist
Boris Gorelick
(1912 - 1984)
Publisher
Works Progress Administration/Federal Art Project-New York City
(1939 - 1943)
Dateca. 1935
MediumLithograph
Dimensionsimage: 11 3/4 × 15 3/8 in. (29.8 × 39.1 cm)
Framed: 19 in. × 22 3/4 in. × 1 1/8 in.
Framed: 19 in. × 22 3/4 in. × 1 1/8 in.
ClassificationsPrint
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2012.128
Signedl.r., in pencil: Boris Gorelick
Accession number
2012.128
On View
Not on viewLabel TextBoris Gorelick's lithograph presents a harrowing montage of haggard faces, sewing machines, and hard-working seamstresses to convey the oppressive conditions in a sweatshop. Exploited employees often worked overly long hours making articles of clothing for pitifully low pay. At the lower right, two workers with thin arms are hunched over cloth. The harsh lamplight reflected on their faces from the right indicates a late-night hour.
The distorted faces and manipulated spaces in the print reflect major currents in mid-twentieth-century art. The flattening and fragmenting of people and objects and the use of strange combinations of mundane things creates a dreamlike effect. At the center, for example, the combination of mask-like faces with the sewing machine and tipped-up stool is disjointing. The jarring combinations and Modernist techniques also emphasize the hardships and oppression that the working poor endured during the Depression.
Inscribedl.c., in pencil: Sweat Shop
Markingsl.l.: Federal Art Project / NYC WPA [stamp]
