Artist: Joseph Hirsch (American, 1910-1981) Title: Lunch Hour Audio: Date: 1942 Dimensions: 9″ x 11 3/4″ Location in Library: Fourth floor Media: Lithograph; works on paper Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. © Artist’s Estate Description: A powerfully expressive draftsman and painter, Hirsch depicted people in ordinary, everyday scenes. In this lithograph, which was the artist’s first, Hirsch’s father, a noted Philadelphia surgeon, posed for the sleeping figure. Hirsch then transformed his father’s figure into a portrait of an African-American youth. Hirsch commented in 1942 that “a re-affirmation by today’s artist of his faith in the common man will be as natural as was the emphasis by El Greco on his faith in the Church.” Related Websites– Joseph Hirsch at the Navy Art Collection – Joseph Hirsch at MoMA – Joseph Hirsch at Smithsonian American Art Museum
Joseph Hirsch
Artist: Joseph Hirsch (American, 1910-1981) Title: Sleeping Head Audio: Date: 1949 Dimensions: 20 5/8″- 15 3/4″ Location in Library: Third floor Joseph Hirsch Media: Lithograph Lithograph Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection Description: One of Hirsch’s strongest images, and one of his rarest prints. This image was drawn directly on the stone in one afternoon, in the Paris studio of Hirsch’s printer Gaston Dorfinant. Hirsch was a painter, iluustrator, muralist and teacher. Social commentary was the backbone of Hirsch’s art, especially works depicting civic corruption and racial injustice. His works are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and many others. Hirsch was a founding member of Artists Equity created to protect the right of visual artists. Related Websites– Joseph Hirsch at the Navy Art Collection – Joseph Hirsch at MoMA – Joseph Hirsch at Smithsonian American Art Museum
