Night Tower

Frederic James (1915-1985) was born in Kansas City, Missouri and was originally an architect. He gave up architecture and dedicated his life to painting, but soon his career was interrupted by World War II. After he returned he continued with his art and teaching career at the Art Institute. Through his career, James completed, "Night Tower," which is an image of oil drilling. This image depicts several oil workers drilling through the night at an industrial oil facility. This image shows great contrast of light and dark. James executed the industrial structure very well as the spotlights bounce off the metal structure. His architectural influence shows through in this structure as well. One really gets the feel that this is at night. He also portrayed the strain in the worked very well. The stretching and wrinkles of the clothing emphasize the hard work that they are doing. The casting of all the shadows is very realistic and gives this a photo realistic quality. James had quite a talent for painting and printmaking as this lithograph shows. His switch from architecture proved to be a prosperous one.

Waiting for Work

Harry Gottlieb was born in Bucharest, Rumania. After immigrating to America he attended the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, and the National Academy of Design. "Waiting for Work," c.1935 was done while Gottlieb was a member of the Woodstock artist community in New York. Gottlieb was known as one of America's first Social Realist artists and was also possibly a member of the Communist party. While he was part of this party he did, "Waiting for Work," which depicts a social protest. The lithograph depicts, "social protest in the depths of the depression with its unemployed workmen huddled in pain and anger around a winter's fire." I would think this must have been a very powerful image for the time as it still holds some bearing in these harsh economic times. The image gives you the impression of how cold everyone is with their collars popped as they huddle closer and closer to the fire. The gloom on the faces you can see is met with the factory almost lost in the mountainside in the background.