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Indepth Arts News:
"Life of the People: Realist Prints and Drawings from the
Ben and Beatrice Goldstein Collection, 1912-1948"
2000-10-07 until 2001-01-14
Museum of the City of New York
New York, NY,
USA United States of America
If pictures tell a thousand words then the
prints and drawings collected by Ben and
Beatrice Goldstein tell millions. Capturing
the triumphs and tragedies of the American
people during a period of economic uncer-tainty
and social unrest Life of the People:
Realist Prints and Drawings from the Ben
and Beatrice Goldstein Collection, 1912-1948,
presents 59 works drawn from this out-standing
collection of some two thousand
prints and drawings. Opening in New York
City, the hometown of Ben Goldstein, at the Museum of the City of New York on October
7, 2000, this exhibition offers an extraordinary overview of the images that shaped the his-tory
of American political art.
Labor advocate and garment manufacturer Ben Goldstein and his wife
Beatrice, left to the Library of Congress – and the nation – a collection
of American prints, drawings, and paintings, informed as very few art
collections have been, by a sympathy for the condition of working people. Born in 1909,
Ben came of age at the beginning of the Great Depression. During his life he amassed a
remarkable collection of works on paper that speak of political struggle, of the travails of
working people, and of the urban industrial experience.
The prints and drawings in Life of the People were created during a period of intense polit-ical
and social activism beginning just before World War I and ending after World War II.
The exhibition highlights images from the 1930s, a time
when the turmoil and uncertainty of the Depression led
increasing numbers of artists to turn toward social concerns
for their subject matter. Along with important examples of
political art such as Robert Minors iconic drawing
Pittsburgh, the exhibition features work depicting the plight
of rural America during the Depression, as in Wastelands by
artist Joe Jones. Also included are humorous, light-hearted
depictions of life in the early twentieth century, such as Martin Lewiss Boss of the Block and
Mabel Dwights The Clinch, Movie Theatre.
Life of the People is organized in five sections: Art of the People, The Radical Impulse,
Capital and Labor, City Life, and The American Scene. These sections represent a
broad spectrum of social and political issues concerning labor and industry, life in the urban
centers, work and play in rural areas, and the experience and achievements of minority
groups. Urban and industrial themes coexist with images of the land, suggesting connec-tions
between working people of all types, from builders and miners to soldiers, farmers, and
office girls.
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