St. Louis Mercantile Library

 

The Bruce and Barbara Feldacker Labor Art Collection
Gagala
 Pat Gagala (20th century), Workers United, woodcut, ca. 1990. Gagala interprets the concept of work in a strong graphic that superimposes the grid created by iron scaffolding and the workers who build on it onto the surface of a newspaper. Thus, Gagala creates an image of labor on an object that is both the product of labor and a vehicle for expressing labor issues.
Jones
 Joe Jones (1909-1963), A Worker Again – on WPA, oil on canvas, ca. 1935. If one work could represent the spirit of the Feldacker Collection, it might be Joe Jones’ self portrait, A Worker Again—on WPA. This painting shows the artist as a worker while being supported by the Federal Art Project, part of President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration. While many artists' self portraits show them with an easel, pallette or paint brush - the tools of their trade - Jones identifies himself as a laborer with pushed-back cap and unbuttoned sleeves.
Vorst
 Joseph Vorst (1897 – 1947), Marble Quarry, oil on canvas, ca. 1935. German-born Vorst came to St. Louis, Missouri in 1930. He had studied art in Germany and soon became both a friend and student of Thomas Hart Benton, another artist represented in the Feldacker collection. Vorst has created a complex composition in which the softer human forms are deftly interwoven with the rigid lines of the marble blocks.
Gilmour
 Leon Gilmour (1907 – 1996), Cement Finishers, wood engraving, 1939. Gilmour turned to wood engraving after having worked as a laborer. In this piece, the artist depicts his fellow laborers at work on a Works Progress Administration project in the 1930s. Although the composition includes tools and machinery, Gilmour has used the angles of the crane and the hand tools along with the shadowed bodies and spotlighting effect to insure the viewer's attention remains on the centralized human figures.
Winkler-Leers
 Paul Winkler-Leers (1887 – unknown), Making Paper, etching, no date. Artists can take up the labor theme for a variety of reasons. This print is part of a series that German artist Winkler-Leers made for the Asten Paper Company, a supplier of materials to paper mills. Unlike the other works shown here, Winkler-Leers' etching focuses on the machinery, with little emphasis on the human involvement necessary for the work. The architecture and equipment of labor is another theme that occurs in the Feldacker Collection.