Robert Gwathmey (American, 1903-1988)Gwathmey, a white artist from Virginia, has often used his art to address racial injustice. Flat planes and strong colors give this work a powerful visual impact. The man's large yet idle hand, his sorrowful expression, and the work's title combine to comment on the physical and emotional drain inflicted by racism.
Lewis Wickes Hine (American, 1874-1940)
A raveler and a looper, two of the tiny workers in a hosiery mill in Tennessee
1910, photograph, 10-3/4" x 13-5/8"
Gift of the Scandinavian Languages Department, Univ. of MN
This photograph is part of a series Hine produced to advocate child labor laws. Here, the artist presents a focused appreciation of the hard lives of children workers. The two small girls seem unaware of the photographer's presence as they work diligently in a textile mill.
Edward Laning (American, 1906-1981)
Third Avenue El at Fourteenth Street
1931, tempera on gessoed masonite, 20" x 30"
Gift of funds from the Class of 1930
This scene, set in lower Manhattan, depicts a bustling, working-class commercial center. Laning, as part of the American Scene School of the twenties and thirties, focused his attention on the commonplace and daily routines of life in American cities. American Scene artists attempted to rise above the despair of the Depression by casting everyday people and their actions in a heroic light. Laning accomplishes this by placing his solid, full-bodied characters in a setting of grand proportions.
Jacob Lawrence (American, 1917- )
Dancing Doll
1947, gouache on composition board, 20-1/4" x 24-1/8"
Bequest of Hudson Walker from the Ione and Hudson Walker Collection
During the first two decades of the twentieth century, a surge of African-Americans migrated from the South to form large urban communities in the northern United States. By the late 1920s and 1930s, the expanding northern black communities spawned groups of artists, writers, musicians, and intellectuals who gave voice to their experiences of a new social and cultural identity in the urban setting. New York City's Harlem was an important center of this national movement in the arts, and Lawrence became a significant part of this ferment in the Harlem of the 1930s. Dancing Doll depicts a street scene where people are manipulating puppets as a means to appeal for money from those passing by.
Stanton MacDonald-Wright (American, 1890-1973)
Canon Synchromy (Orange)
1919, oil on canvas, 24-1/8" x 24-1/8"
Gift of Ione and Hudson Walker
MacDonald-Wright founded an art movement called synchromism, which he defined as simply meaning "with color." Synchromism made color itself the subject of painting and was based on extensive color theory and techniques. The artist used color to help create strong illusions of dimension on a flat surface, and, as seen in this work, often juxtaposed different colors to produce a contrast of projecting versus receding space.
Robert Motherwell (American, 1915-1991)
Mural Fragment
1950, oil on composition board, 96" x 144"
Gift of Katherine Ordway
Robert Motherwell, an abstract expressionist painter, focuses on the expression of inner emotional states through the use of color, line, and plane. This composition was originally created for a 1950 exhibition in New York, in which five artists were asked to design murals for certain buildings. MotherwellÕs project was intended for a 27 x 63 foot wall of a school auditorium in Massachusetts. While the mural project was never realized, he painted this to work out his ideas on a large scale.
Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt (American, 1878-1955)
Blue Gull
1951, oil on canvas, 40" x 48"
Gift of Mrs. B.J.O. Nordfeldt
Nordfeldt was a Swedish immigrant who lived in Minnesota for part of his life. Painted late in his career, when the artist was exploring geometric abstraction, this work reveals Nordfeldt's deep respect for designs found in nature. The figures of the gull and the fish are encased in geometric forms that are echoed in the surrounding shapes, instilling vitality and motion throughout the work.
Edgar Alwin Payne (American, 1882-1947)
Spring in Lincoln Park (Chicago)
1910, oil on cardboard, 5-1/2" x 7-5/8"
Gift of Evelyn Payne Hatcher
Payne grew up in the Ozarks, where his deep love for nature began. Although mostly self-taught, the artist studied briefly at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was in this early phase of his career that he painted this landscape. The loose brushwork and soft colors found in this work are the hallmarks of his contribution to American impressionism.
James Rosenquist (American, 1933- )
World's Fair Mural
1964, oil on masonite, 240" x 240"
Gift of the artist
Rosenquist is a core member of the 1960s pop art movement. As a struggling young artist, Rosenquist made his living as a sign and billboard painter. His work incorporates the techniques he honed as a sign painter and the imagery of advertising embraced by pop artists. His paintings typically include a juxtaposition of isolated and seemingly unrelated images that, when taken as a whole, communicate a pointed message. This mural, created for the 1964 world's fair, comments on the race between nations to get to the moon.