Wolfson Museum: Art of Labor

American artists created many canvases of working men and women in the 1930s, during times of mass unemployment and the organization of trade unions. At the same time, they created art that only partially reflects how the industrial revolution and economic growth have changed the nature of labor over the past half century.

Paintings and sculptures on thisexhibition will highlight the forms of labor — growing crops, forging metal, cutting stone and sewing clothes — that grew out of old traditions and were based on physical strength and manual labor. They turned out to be more beautiful and heroic objects than many purely modern works, such as office, retail or assembly works.