The
Bruce and Barbara Feldacker Labor Art Collection
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |