Labor Unity, 1939 Artist: Philip Tipperman (American, 1916 -1969) Oil on canvas board, 16 x 20 inches Gift of Tipperman Family The Brooklyn College Library Collection The Committee (later Congress) for Industrial Organization (CIO) emerged out of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and grew rapidly during the Great Depression. The rivalry for dominance between the two organizations was bitter and sometimes violent. The CIO focused on organizing industrial workers who had been ignored by the AFL unions that supported craft and trade workers. Many in the AFL union had discriminated against African Americans and the CIO held out more egalitarian possibilities. In the background of the painting, industrial buildings loom. A Black worker, with a CIO button on the lapel of his coat, dominates the foreground. His face appears to express both anxiety and determination. By foregrounding him, Tipperman highlights the important role African Americans played in industrial unionization. The strong neck and bashed nose of the white AFL man suggests his fighting nature, while his clenched hands seem to reflect a unifying gesture or perhaps a struggle. The jagged, ominous dark clouds woven across the sky imply a sense of turmoil and potential trouble brewing for labor and […]
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Labor Strike, 1939 Artist: Philip Tipperman (American, 1916 -1969) Oil on canvas board, 16 x 20 inches Gift of Tipperman Family The Brooklyn College Library Collection During the Great Depression (1929-1939) picket lines and worker strikes were a common occurrence in cities across the United States. Rising worker militancy during hard times, strikes, as well as the passage of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 known as the “Wagner Act,” fueled the rise of labor unions. In this painting, set in front of an imposing but nondescript factory, picketers evoke empathy with their facial expressions of hope and fear. A man in the foreground holds a strike placard and wears a fedora, which is different from the other workers’ caps. His confident demeanor, and what appears to be a union button on his jacket, suggests that he is a union leader. The painting style is in keeping with Social Realism — a movement that flourished between the two World Wars in response to the hardships and social and political turmoil of the time. Social realist artists often portrayed everyday workers as heroic symbols of persistence and strength in the face of adversity.
Murdered by the Company, 1939 Artist: Philip Tipperman (American, 1916 -1969) Oil on canvas board, 16 x 20 inches Gift of Tipperman Family The Brooklyn College Library Collection Five white men with expressions of fear and horror are carrying a dead Black man. The picket sign being carried by one man and another sign on the ground suggests the men were picketing one of the factories in the background. Was the brick in the right foreground thrown at the workers and then killing the Black man? Or was he killed in an industrial accident where there were unsafe working conditions? The surging shapes, churning rhythms, ominous clouds, including tornado-like funnel clouds, convey an unsettling mood of force and violence. Placing the dead African American man front and center in the painting draws attention to the fact that no group during the Great Depression was harder hit than African Americans. By 1932, approximately half of African Americans were unemployed. In some Northern cities, many whites called for Black men to be fired from any jobs as long as white men were out of work. Racial violence became more common, especially in the South, and the large tree branches in the upper […]
Picketed, Beaten and Jailed, 1939 Artist: Philip Tipperman (American, 1916 -1969) Oil on canvas board, 16 x 20 inches Gift of Tipperman Family The Brooklyn College Library Collection This painting provides a dramatic portrayal of jailed striking workers, two with bloodied bandaged heads, holding their picket signs and with facial expressions of despair but also some degree of resolve. The exaggerated forms, undulating shapes and sculpted faces adds visual force to to the painting. It’s also significant for its depiction of Black and white men working together for better wages and working conditions. Note the small tear on the right shoulder of the green jacket worn by the worker with brown hair, which resembles a paint brush—perhaps an emblem of the artist’s solidarity with labor. Also, the smoke from the cigarette seems to form the cloud hovering over the men. Historically, striking workers had risked their lives on the picket lines. Though unions often formed in response to dangerous working conditions, going on strike exposed workers to lost wages but also to the danger of arrest or physical violence from hired thugs or police that served as companies’ strong-arms.
After Work and Before Supper, 1939 Artist: Philip Tipperman (American, 1916 -1969) Oil on canvas board, 16 x 20 inches Gift of Tipperman Family The Brooklyn College Library Collection In this painting, Tipperman uses a distorted aerial perspective to focus on a sleeping worker depicted in the relative comfort of his working-class home. A steam-heat radiator, a cast aside pipe, a wooden chair, a standing lamp, a rumpled rug, and a single bed with visible mattress springs suggest a working-class environment. Tipperman in his own very unique way, is at once offering us images that are misshapen and distorted and yet also charming detailed shapes and forms that often appear quite beautiful. The viewer is able to palpably understand the effort required to maintain this man’s modest lifestyle. The angles of his body are twisted and misshapen suggesting discomfort. We share in his extreme sense of exhaustion, still in work clothes with shoes off, belt unbuckled curvaceously like a snake, tie pulled down, and shirt unbuttoned as he briefly naps before his supper. Perhaps dreaming of an easier life.
