I Make Steel
I Make Steel
Artist
Elizabeth Olds
(1896 - 1991)
Publisher
Works Progress Administration/Federal Art Project-New York City
(1939 - 1943)
Dateca. 1937
MediumLithograph
Dimensionsimage: 17 3/8 × 13 5/8 in. (44.1 × 34.6 cm)
sheet: 21 5/8 × 16 1/4 in. (54.9 × 41.3 cm)
Framed: 24 7/8 in. × 21 in. × 1 1/8 in.
sheet: 21 5/8 × 16 1/4 in. (54.9 × 41.3 cm)
Framed: 24 7/8 in. × 21 in. × 1 1/8 in.
ClassificationsPrint
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2012.331
Signedl.r., in margin, in pencil: Elizabeth Olds
l.r., in image: E.O.
Accession number
2012.331
On View
Not on viewLabel TextWhile working for the Omaha Public Works of Art Project, Elizabeth Olds learned the process of lithography—from grinding the stones to cranking the printing press. She joined the New York City WPA Federal Art Project in 1935.
She later expressed the artistic aims of her generation in writing: "American artists have lately chosen to portray our own life. We find our subject on the streets, in the factory, the machines and workers of industry and on the farm. We aim to picture truly the life about us as the people we are in reference to the forces that make us. We choose all sides of life, searching for the vital and significant."
The lines on a lithograph often resemble a drawing because, in the print process, the artist draws the image directly onto a lithography stone using a greasy medium, giving a soft feel to printed lines.
Inscribedrecto, l.c., in margin, in pencil: I Make Steel
Markingsrecto, l.l.: [WPA Stamp]
