Authors

Curated by
Zirui Feng '22
Elinor Gass '24
Ran Li '23
Lauren McVeigh '22
Matthew Montes '22
Lin Zhu '22

Under the direction of
Professor Yan Sun

Files

Download

Download Full Text (3.4 MB)

Document Type

Art Catalog

Description

Artists, perhaps to emphasize their own dedication to the intellectual and manual skills required for making art, have long been drawn to the theme of labor, both in their depictions of workers and scenes of making. In the late seventeenth century, Dutch paintings frequently portrayed earnest and diligent artisans performing trades at shops or on the streets. Later, rapid economic, social and political changes throughout Europe in the mid-nineteenth century led to a more radical approach to realist representations of labor. This exhibition ART/WORK: Labor, Identity, and Society considers these art-historical precedents to explore the issues of labor in art. More specifically, the student curators investigate the dynamic interplay between labor, gender, and race in the process of industrialization and social transition across various cultures in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. ART/WORK highlights thirteen works of art from Gettysburg College’s Fine Art Collection and Special Collections. Posters, prints, and photographs in this exhibition are not simply documents of people and tasks performed within their own particular histories and societies, but are presented as works of art by a diverse group of accomplished makers. [excerpt]

Publication Date

Winter 2022

Publisher

Schmucker Art Gallery, Gettysburg College

City

Gettysburg, PA

Keywords

labor, labor in art, photography, lithography

Comments

ART/WORK: Labor, Identity, and Society was on exhibition at the Schmucker Art Gallery at Gettysburg College December 7, 2021 – March 4, 2022

ART/WORK: Labor, Identity, and Society
COinS