Clocking In: Visions of Labor

Clocking In

Visions of Labor August–December 2022 Learning Guide

Clocking In

Visions of Labor August–December 2022 How do we visualize labor? How can art contribute to, as well as challenge, our understanding of labor? This exhibition invites reflection on who engages in particular types of work and what kinds of jobs are valorized. It also encourages us to interrogate labor’s mental, physical, social, political, and economic effects.

Each gallery brings a unique focus to the subject of work through a lens such as gender, place, or material. Others look critically at the practice of labor or depict life beyond work. Together, they illuminate an expanded understanding of what it means to labor.

Exhibition support is provided by Kristen and Geoff Cline, Melanie and Jon Gross, HixsonLied Endowment, Nebraska Arts Council, and Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

Clocking In Visions of Labor August–December 2022

FRANC DOROTHY EPPING

DAN RICO Subway Drillers

Scrubwoman

FERDINAND HODLER Der Holzfaller [The Woodcutter]

LOUIS LOZOWICK Night Repairs

ALFRED HENRY MAURER Café Interior

ELIZABETH TERRELL Woman Scrubbing

RICHARD CORRELL Moving Timbers

KÄTHE KOLLWITZ Working Woman with Earring

W. EUGENE SMITH The Spinner, from the Spanish Village series

HENRY FARRER The Washerwoman, from the American Etchings portfolio

EMILIO AMERO Straw Weaver, Juchitan, from the Amero Picture Book portfolio

Clocking In Visions of Labor August–December 2022

EUGÈNE ATGET

FAIRFIELD PORTER

Men’s Fashions, from the 20 Photographs by Eugène Atget portfolio

Anne, Lizzie and Katie

ELIZABETH OLDS

GEORGE HERLICK

Miners

Light Refreshments on 8th Avenue

EDWARD ARCENIO CHAVEZ

JOSEPH L E BOIT

The Watering Tank

Paving

CAMILLE PISSARRO AARON DOUGLAS

Femme Dans Un Potager [Woman in a Vegetable Garden]

Window Cleaning

JEAN-FRANCOIS MILLET

BURTON SILVERMAN

La Baratteuse [Woman Churning]

Garment Workers

BARBARA KRUGER Untitled (Progress is Your Most Important Product)

Clocking In Visions of Labor August–December 2022

DAME LAURA KNIGHT

WAUNITA WILLIAMS RAY

Dressing Room No. 1

Still Life #1 (Sewing Machine)

WILLIAM WHITSLAR FULLER Savannah Cotton Exchange Savannah, Georgia

MANUEL ALVAREZ BRAVO Los Agachados [The Crouched Ones]

WINSLOW HOMER Making Hay

RAFAEL TUFIÑO Y Ahora...Hacia Donde [And Now. . . Where to]

JEAN CHARLOT Tortillera with Child

NORMAN ROCKWELL

ELIZABETH NOURSE

The County Agricultural Agent

Sous les arbres [Under the Trees]

LYNN DANCE Beef Processing Plant, Buffalo County

LYDIA FIGUEROA Campesino [Farmer]

LYNN DANCE Jasper Jones, Omaha

MARGUERITE STUBER PEARSON Sewing by the Fireplace

Clocking In Visions of Labor August–December 2022

PAUL STARRETT SAMPLE

MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE

Miners Resting

Steel Lines, Fort Peck, Montana

WILLIAM MCGREGOR PAXTON Girl Knitting

RENEE COX Mother of Us All, from the Queen Nanny of the Maroons series

FAITH RINGGOLD IAN DAVIS Files

The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles

JANE PETERSON W. EUGENE SMITH

The Red Cross Center

Nurse-Midwife Maude Callen

MARTHA ROSLER Semiotics of the Kitchen

CHARLES HARBUTT Man in Bistro, Paris

WILL MENTOR The Three Sisters

LORNA SIMPSON Backdrops circa 1940s

LUCAS FOGLIA Jesús, José, and Luis Harvesting Turnips and Miner’s Lettuce, Heirloom Organic Gardens, California

Clocking In Visions of Labor August–December 2022

EUGÈNE ATGET

FRED BECKER

Faucheurs [Reapers], Somme, from the 20 Photographs by Eugène Atget portfolio

John Henry Loading Cotton

DALE NICHOLS Summer’s Bounty (As Ye Sow)

BEN SHAHN Cotton Pickers, Pulaski County, Arkansas

SOLOMON D. BUTCHER

DOROTHEA LANGE

Rankin Patented Hay Stacker, Watson Ranch (Wheat Stack and Workers)

Migratory Cotton Picker, Eloy, Arizona

CLARE LEIGHTON

DOROTHEA LANGE

Haymaking

Migratory Cotton Picker, Eloy, Pinal County, Arizona

THOMAS HART BENTON

ROY DECARAVA Fashion Center

Threshing

ANALIA SABAN International Ladies Garment Workers Union, Made in USA, Clothing Tag

HANK WILLIS THOMAS Cotton Bowl

ANALIA SABAN Designed in France, Made in China, Clothing Tag

LEWIS W. HINE Boy Going to Work, Merrimac Mills, Huntsville, Alabama, Noon

Clocking In Visions of Labor August–December 2022

LEWIS W. HINE

AN-MY LÊ

Sullivan’s Delivery Boy, South Carolina

Fragment II: Cattle Drive at Perdiz Creek Ranch (Reservoir), Marfa, Texas, from Silent General

LEWIS W. HINE Young German Steelworker, Pittsburgh

ROBERT DOISNEAU Boulangerie Rue de Poitou [Bakery on a Street in Poitou]

LEWIS W. HINE Oyster Shucker, Mississippi

REGINALD MARSH The Park Bench

CHRISTINA FERNANDEZ Lavanderia #5

ISABEL BISHOP HENDRIK GLINTENKAMP

Office Girls

Traffic, 7th Ave. Subway

FERNANDO SALICRUP Luisa Capetillo 1883–1922

ISABEL BISHOP Lunch Hour

FRANC DOROTHY EPPING

Alhambra, CA 1910–Pittsfield, MA 1983 Scrubwoman Cast stone, 1939

University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-213.1940

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FERDINAND HODLER

Bern, Switzerland 1853–Geneva, Switzerland 1918 Der Holzfaller [The Woodcutter] Lithograph, circa 1910 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-1256.1968

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LOUIS LOZOWICK

Ludvinovka, Ukraine 1892–South Orange, NJ 1973 Night Repairs Color lithograph, 1939 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Allocation of the U.S. Government, Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration WPA-306.1943

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KÄTHE KOLLWITZ

Konigsberg, Germany 1867–Moritzburg, Germany 1945 Working Woman with Earring Etching, 1910 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-351.1954

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HENRY FARRER

London, England 1843–New York, NY 1903 The Washerwoman, from the American Etchings portfolio Etching, 1877 University of Nebraska–Lincoln University Collection U-423.16.1963

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DAN RICO

Rochester, NY 1912–Los Angeles, CA 1985 Subway Drillers Wood engraving, 1937 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Allocation of the U.S. Government, Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration WPA-318.1943

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ALFRED HENRY MAURER New York, NY 1868–New York, NY 1932 Café Interior Oil on canvas, 1904 Nebraska Art Association Thomas C. Woods Memorial N-119.1959

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ELIZABETH TERRELL

Toledo, OH 1908–Death place unknown 1993 Woman Scrubbing Gouache on paper, circa 1935 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Allocation of the U.S. Government, Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration WPA-130.1943

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RICHARD CORRELL

Springfield, MO 1904–Oakland, CA 1990 Moving Timbers Color linocut, 1940 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Allocation of the U.S. Government, Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration WPA-350.1943

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W. EUGENE SMITH

Wichita, KS 1918–Tucson, AZ 1978 The Spinner, from the Spanish Village series Gelatin silver print, 1950 Nebraska Art Association Purchased with the aid of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts N-409.1976

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EMILIO AMERO

Ixtlahuaca, Mexico 1901–Norman, OK 1976 Straw Weaver, Juchitan, from the Amero Picture Book portfolio Gelatin silver print, 1940 University of Nebraska–Lincoln University Collection U-1713.13.1971

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EUGÈNE ATGET

Libourne, France 1857–Paris, France 1927 Men’s Fashions, from the 20 Photographs by Eugène Atget portfolio Gold toned gelatin silver print, 1925, printed 1956 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-837.3.1963

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ELIZABETH OLDS

Minneapolis, MN 1896–Sarasota, FL 1991 Miners Color lithograph, 1937 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Allocation of the U.S. Government, Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration WPA-309.1943

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EDWARD ARCENIO CHAVEZ

Wagonmound, NM 1917–Woodstock, NY 1995 The Watering Tank Tempera on gesso masonite, circa 1937 – 1938 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Allocation of the U.S. Government, Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration WPA-104.1943

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CAMILLE PISSARRO

Charlotte Amalie, Virgin Islands 1830–Paris, France 1903 Femme Dans Un Potager [Woman in a Vegetable Garden] Etching and aquatint, circa 1880 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-835.1963

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JEAN-FRANCOIS MILLET

Gruchy, France 1814–Barbizon, France 1875 La Baratteuse [Woman Churning] Etching, circa 1855 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-822.1963

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FAIRFIELD PORTER

Winnetka, IL 1907–Southampton, NY 1975 Anne, Lizzie and Katie Oil on canvas, 1958 Nebraska Art Association Thomas C. Woods Memorial N-142.1962

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GEORGE HERLICK

Birth and death place unknown–active 1930s Light Refreshments on 8th Avenue Gelatin silver print, circa 1935 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Allocation of the U.S. Government, Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration U-1994.1943

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JOSEPH L E BOIT

New York, NY 1907–Walnut Creek, CA 2002 Paving Lithograph, 1937 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Allocation of the U.S. Government, Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration WPA-308.1943

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AARON DOUGLAS

Topeka, KS 1899–Nashville, TN 1979 Window Cleaning Oil on canvas, 1935 Nebraska Art Association N-40.1936

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BURTON SILVERMAN

born Brooklyn, NY 1928

Garment Workers Color lithograph, 1960–1963 Printed by Drum Lithographer, published by Collectors Graphics, Inc. University of Nebraska–Lincoln Gift of Michael and Kim Sherman U-4818.1996

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BARBARA KRUGER

born Newark, NJ 1945

Untitled (Progress is Your Most Important Product) Black and white photograph, 1984 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Gift of Wil J. and Sally Hergenrader U-5644.2011

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DAME LAURA KNIGHT

Long Eaton, England 1877–London, England 1970 Dressing Room No. 1 Aquatint, 1923 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-1391.1970

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WILLIAM WHITSLAR FULLER

born Cleveland, OH 1948

Savannah Cotton Exchange - Savannah, Georgia Gelatin silver print, 1982 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-2577.1983

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WINSLOW HOMER

Boston, MA 1836–Prouts Neck, ME 1910 Making Hay Wood engraving, 1872 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-2099.1975

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JEAN CHARLOT

Paris, France 1898–Honolulu, HI 1979 Tortillera with Child Color lithograph, 1941 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-533.1959

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NORMAN ROCKWELL

New York, NY 1894–Stockbridge, MA 1978 The County Agricultural Agent Oil on canvas, 1947–1948 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Gift of Nathan Gold U-563.1969

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LYNN DANCE

born Los Angeles, CA 1949 Beef Processing Plant, Buffalo County Gelatin silver print, 1976 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Gift of the artist U-2039.1977

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LYNN DANCE

born Los Angeles, CA 1949 Jasper Jones, Omaha Gelatin silver print, circa 1976 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Gift of the artist U-2025.1977

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WAUNITA WILLIAMS RAY

Stella, NE 1896–Lincoln, NE 1974 Still Life #1 (Sewing Machine) Oil on canvas, date unknown University of Nebraska–Lincoln Gift of the Ray Family U-5441.1998

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MANUEL ALVAREZ BRAVO

Mexico City, Mexico 1902–Mexico City, Mexico 2002 Los Agachados [The Crouched Ones] Gelatin silver print, 1934 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-2018.1975

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RAFAEL TUFIÑO

New York, NY 1922–San Juan, Puerto Rico 2008 Y Ahora...Hacia Donde [And Now. . . Where to] Silkscreen, 1962 University of Nebraska–Lincoln The Gloria Rodriguez Calero Collection of Puerto Rican Works on Paper U-6069.2012

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ELIZABETH NOURSE

Mount Healthy, OH 1859–Paris, France 1938 Sous les arbres [Under the Trees] Oil on canvas, 1902 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Collection H-59.1928

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LYDIA FIGUEROA

birth and death unknown Campesino [Farmer] Woodcut, 1971

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The Gloria Rodriguez Calero Collection of Puerto Rican Works on Paper U-5818.2012

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MARGUERITE STUBER PEARSON

Philadelphia, PA 1898–Rockport, MA 1978 Sewing by the Fireplace Oil on canvas, date unknown

Nebraska Art Association Gift of an anonymous donor in honor of Lorraine LeMar Rohman N-678.1986

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PAUL STARRETT SAMPLE

Louisville, KY 1896–Norwich, VT 1974 Miners Resting Oil on canvas, 1935

University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-168.1937

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WILLIAM MCGREGOR PAXTON

Baltimore, MD 1869–Boston, MA 1941 Girl Knitting Oil on canvas, 1919 Nebraska Art Association Gift of Beatrice D. Rohman N-647.1983

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IAN DAVIS

born Indianapolis, IN 1972 Files Acrylic on paper, 2007 Sheldon Art Association Gift of Robert and Victoria Northrup S-879.2012

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W. EUGENE SMITH

Wichita, KS 1918–Tucson, AZ 1978 Nurse-Midwife Maude Callen Gelatin silver print, 1951 Nebraska Art Association Purchased with the aid of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts N-410.1976

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Originally published in the photo essay “Nurse Midwife” in the December 3, 1951, issue of Life magazine, this photograph speaks to multiple kinds of labor. At the center, a newborn baby works to fill his lungs with his first breaths of air. The mother, still attached to her child by the umbilical cord, lies mostly out of the frame, exhausted after laboring for more than twelve hours under the supervision of midwife Phoebe Gadsden (left) and nurse midwife Maude Callen (right). Photojournalist W. Eugene Smith captured this scene during the two and a half months he spent following Callen as she cared for the several thousand individuals living in impoverished communities

W. EUGENE SMITH

in a four-hundred-mile area of rural South

Nurse-Midwife Maude Callen

Carolina known as Hell Hole Swamp.

In 1951, when this photograph was taken, Callen was one of only nine trained nurse midwives in South Carolina and three hundred in the nation.

She often worked sixteen-hour days, providing all kinds of medical assistance and community support. It is estimated that Callen delivered between six and eight hundred babies during her forty-eight-year career.

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CHARLES HARBUTT

Camden, NJ 1935–Monteagle, TN 2015 Man in Bistro, Paris Gelatin silver print, 1975 Sheldon Art Association Gift of John and Daryl Lillie S-1141.2017

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In the center of this candid shot, a man holding a magazine takes a break from reading and glances askance at the dish a woman is bringing to his table. The woman, recognizable as a waitress by her apron, appears to serve the man from two sides, as her body is reflected in the mirror on the right side of the photograph. The faces of other

CHARLES HARBUTT Man in Bistro, Paris

diners can also be seen in the mirrors of this Parisian bistro, where moments of labor and rest coexist.

Bistros in Paris date back to the nineteenth century Industrial Revolution, when migrants from south-central France flocked to the capital in search of work. Some women began serving coffee, wine, and cheap, hearty food to supplement their husbands’ low-paying wages from jobs such as delivering coal and carrying water for public baths. Bistros later became cultural and intellectual hubs, still providing affordable food and drink and a welcoming atmosphere.

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LORNA SIMPSON

born New York, NY 1960

Backdrops circa 1940s Diptych: screen print on felt, 1998 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-3100.A-B.1998

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For this work, Lorna Simpson screen printed on felt two images from found photographs.

On the left, an unknown young woman poses with a cut-out moon and stars against a dark backdrop. The inscription tells us she is seated in a photographer’s studio in the 1940s.

In the image on the right, the famous actress and singer Lena Horne and a bass player stand out

LORNA SIMPSON

against a dark backdrop scattered with lights

Backdrops circa 1940s

on the set of the 1943 film I Dood It. Horne, one of the first Black performers signed to a longterm contract by a major Hollywood film studio, appeared in the film’s musical numbers, which were cut to appease racist viewers when the movie screened in the South.

Through this juxtaposition of images, Simpson simultaneously highlights the marginalization, achievements, and lived experiences of these women and many others.

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MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE

New York, NY 1904–Stamford, CT 1971 Steel Lines, Fort Peck, Montana Gelatin silver print, 1936

University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-2152.1976

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Widely known for her industrial subjects, Margaret Bourke-White was the ideal photographer to chronicle the New Deal era.

In 1936 she joined the staff of Life magazine as a photojournalist and was sent to eastern Montana to document the construction of the Fort Peck Dam, a Public Works Administration project that employed over ten thousand workers at its peak. Such large-scale

MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE

undertakings became symbols of government

Steel Lines, Fort Peck, Montana

building initiatives and progress in the face of economic uncertainty.

Taken while looking up at the structure, this image shows how modern human experience is intertwined with large-scale industrial work. The men climb up, stand in, and sit on the massive steel lines, interrupting the geometric pattern of radiating spokes and circles that are a part of what is still the largest hydraulically filled dam in the United States.

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RENEE COX

born Colgate, Jamaica 1960 Mother of Us All, from the Queen Nanny of the Maroons series Digital inkjet print on watercolor paper, 2004 Sheldon Art Association Purchased with funds from the Sheldon Forum S-870.2010

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This photograph is part of a series in which Renee Cox enacts the role of Queen Nanny, an eighteenth-century leader of the Jamaican Maroons who fought against the island’s British colonizers. The Jamaican Maroons were communities of enslaved Africans and local-born enslaved people who escaped from the plantations and fled to the mountains and forests throughout Jamaica.

RENEE COX

In this image, which was taken in an area

Mother of Us All, from the Queen Nanny of the Maroons series

where descendants of the Jamaican Maroons still live, Cox sits on the edge of a wooden porch. She looks directly out of the picture plane at the viewer as if to assert her role as mother to the six young children who stand, sit, and crouch behind her, and who represent “us all.” Indeed, as Jamaica’s only female national hero, the legend and spirit of Queen Nanny continues to be a symbol of freedom, strength, and unity for her people.

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FAITH RINGGOLD

born New York, NY 1930

The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles Color lithograph on white Rives BFK paper, 1996 University of Nebraska–Lincoln H. Y. Thomson Fund U-4965.1998

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This colorful lithograph celebrates the contributions of eight important women to abolition, civil rights, and women’s rights. The group is shown participating in a quilting bee, a social gathering of women centered around the traditionally female artform—a medium for which Faith Ringgold is well known. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder, from upper left, the women are Madam C. J. Walker, Sojourner

FAITH RINGGOLD

Truth, Ida B. Wells, Fannie Lou Hamer, Harriet

The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles

Tubman, Rosa Parks, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Ella Baker.

The figure in the lower left is Willia Marie Simone, a fictional character created by Ringgold, who moves to Paris in the early twentieth century to become an artist and businesswoman. The women appear to look skeptically at painter Vincent van Gogh, standing on the right side of the composition.

While Ringgold appropriates the sunflower imagery with which van Gogh is associated, she centers the women and their efforts here.

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JANE PETERSON

Elgin, IL 1876–Leawood, KS 1965 The Red Cross Center Gouache and charcoal on paper, circa 1917 Nebraska Art Association Gift of Beatrice Rohman N-602.1982

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Jane Peterson’s The Red Cross Center depicts a common scene in the United States during World War I. The American Red Cross provided invaluable aid to soldiers abroad through the collection and distribution of funds and supplies. In this image, Peterson depicts a Red Cross center with women busily rolling bandages and assembling supply packages. By using a dominant color palette

JANE PETERSON

of white and composing her scene with clearly

The Red Cross Center

defined space and distinct workstations, she portrays the Red Cross and the workers as clean and organized.

Peterson created several war-themed paintings during this period that she exhibited, sold, or donated to promote the Red Cross and the sale of Liberty Bonds.

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MARTHA ROSLER

born Brooklyn, NY 1943

Semiotics of the Kitchen Video, 1975 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Olga N. Sheldon Acquisition Trust U-5588.2010

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Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and their meanings. In this 1975 video, Martha Rosler filmed herself in the style of televised cooking shows, proceeding through an alphabet of ordinary kitchen utensils. Yet, rather than demonstrating how they might be used in the preparation of food, she instead presents each object to the audience through gestures of frustration, anger, resentment,

MARTHA ROSLER

and aggression. Rosler has said of the

Semiotics of the Kitchen

unnamed person she performs: “as she speaks, she names her own oppression.” As such, Rosler uses one set of symbols—letters of the English alphabet—to identify common objects as signs that suggest the kitchen is an oppressive domestic space that keeps women in a prescribed social role.

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WILL MENTOR

born Longmeadow, MA 1958 The Three Sisters Lithograph, chine collé, and screenprint, 1997 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Gift of Gallery Friends U-4939.1998

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The title of this print refers to three crops— corn, squash, and beans—that have long been cultivated together by many Native American groups. Grown in close proximity over a season, each plant benefits from the other two: corn provides stalks for vines to climb, beans pull nitrogen from the air to fertilize the soil, and squash spread along the ground, creating mulch and preventing weed growth. Here, Will Mentor depicts varieties of the Three Sisters on what appears to be a page from a gardener’s sketchbook, including phrases, diagrams, and a list of personages that suggest a historically inspired attempt at contemporary sustainable farming.

WILL MENTOR The Three Sisters

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LUCAS FOGLIA

born Long Island, NY 1983 Jesús, José, and Luis Harvesting Turnips and Miner’s Lettuce, Heirloom Organic Gardens, California Pigment print, 2011 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Robert E. Schweser and Fern Beardsley Schweser Acquisition Fund through the University of Nebraska Foundation U-6762.2018

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Lucas Foglia began his Human Nature series in 2006 but was compelled to take a deeper look in 2012 after Hurricane Sandy affected his family farm located outside of New York City. This came with the realization that “... there is no place on Earth unaltered by people.... [The series] Human Nature focuses on our current relationship with nature.”

Agriculture and the tending of the land is

LUCAS FOGLIA

one facet of that relationship which Foglia

Jesús, José, and Luis Harvesting Turnips and Miner’s Lettuce, Heirloom Organic Gardens, California

explores in this photograph.

Three men walk along a muddy dirt road on a farm, carrying large produce crates. Jesús, José, and Luis, as the title identifies them, are dressed in protective rain gear in deference to the heavy grey clouds in the sky. The sunlight coming in from the left of the image hints that the rain is ending, though it is unclear if the workday for the three men is ending as well, or perhaps just beginning.

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EUGÈNE ATGET

Libourne, France 1857–Paris, France 1927 Faucheurs [Reapers], Somme, from the 20 Photographs by Eugène Atget portfolio Gold-toned gelatin silver print, 1890/1898, printed 1956 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-837.18.1963

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DALE NICHOLS

David City, NE 1904–Sedona, AZ 1995 Summer’s Bounty (As Ye Sow) Oil on canvas, 1941 Nebraska Art Association Gift of Miller & Paine N-53.1945

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SOLOMON D. BUTCHER

Burton, WV 1856–Greeley, CO 1927

Rankin Patented Hay Stacker, Watson Ranch (Wheat Stack and Workers) Gelatin silver print, date unknown University of Nebraska–Lincoln Gift of the Nebraska Historical Society U-2373

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CLARE LEIGHTON

London, England 1898–Woodbury, CT 1989 Haymaking Wood engraving, 1932 University of Nebraska–Lincoln James E. M. and Helen Thomson Acquisition Trust U-3754.1985

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THOMAS HART BENTON

Neosho, MO 1889–Kansas City, MO 1975 Threshing Lithograph, 1941 Nebraska Art Association Jean Rathburn Faulkner Memorial N-732.1992

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EUGÈNE ATGET Faucheurs [Reapers], Somme, from the 20 Photographs by Eugène Atget portfolio

THOMAS HART BENTON Threshing

These artworks present the harvesting and processing of hay through different time periods and media. The works by Dale Nichols and Eugène Atget seem idyllic and do not feature tools more advanced than a scythe.

DALE NICHOLS Summer’s Bounty (As Ye Sow)

As agricultural technology developed, the efficiency of harvesting increased and the required manpower decreased. The prints

by Clare Leighton and Thomas Hart Benton show the mechanization of harvesting hay and threshing grain with the inclusion of machinery that dominates the visual field.

Solomon D. Butcher’s photograph illustrates the continued involvement of men and

SOLOMON D. BUTCHER Rankin Patented Hay Stacker, Watson Ranch (Wheat Stack and Workers)

animals, but also the large amounts of hay that could be harvested with the aid of new innovations in farming equipment.

Together, these works demonstrate how representations of agricultural labor can have varied points of view, highlighting peaceful farm scenes or back-breaking work.

CLARE LEIGHTON Haymaking

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ANALIA SABAN

born Buenos Aires, Argentina 1980 International Ladies Garment Workers Union, Made in USA, Clothing Tag Mixografia® print on handmade paper, 2019 Printed by Mixografia®, Los Angeles, CA University of Nebraska–Lincoln Robert E. Schweser and Fern Beardsley Schweser Acquisition Fund, through the University of Nebraska Foundation U-6895.2020

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ANALIA SABAN

born Buenos Aires, Argentina 1980 Designed in France, Made in China, Clothing Tag Mixografia® print on handmade paper, 2019 Printed by Mixografia®, Los Angeles, CA University of Nebraska–Lincoln Joell J. Brightfelt Art Acquisition Fund, through the University of Nebraska Foundation U-6894.2020

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Analia Saban created these two prints in collaboration with Mixografia, a fine arts printer and publisher based in Los Angeles, California. By reconstructing actual clothing labels as handmade paper prints at a dramatically enlarged scale, Saban reveals the tags to be more than utilitarian fragments of garments that are mass produced and attached to clothing items by mechanical processes. In particular, they call attention to the larger context of the textile and fashion industry as well as to labor conditions and the

ANALIA SABAN International Ladies Garment Workers Union, Made in USA, Clothing Tag

global circulation of goods.

The International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) was founded in 1900 in New York City. By the mid-twentieth century, when the union gained safer labor conditions, decent wages, and benefits for its members, many manufacturers had moved to the South where there were no unions. Later, the garment industry shifted much of its production to countries that permitted greater exploitation of human labor and fewer safety controls—as one of Saban’s clothing tags states, “Designed in France, [but] Made in China.” In response to an increase in imported goods in the 1970s, unions such as the ILGWU appealed to American consumers’ patriotism

ANALIA SABAN

by adding the words “Made in USA” to their

Designed in France, Made in China, Clothing Tag

label, which was sewn into union-made garments, and launching their “Look for the Label” advertising campaign.

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FRED BECKER

Oakland, CA 1913–Amherst, MA 2004 John Henry Loading Cotton Wood engraving, 1935–1942 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Allocation of the US Government, Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration WPA-323.1943

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American folk hero John Henry was a formerly enslaved Black man and railroad worker. He performed the difficult, dangerous work of manually hammering a steel drill into rock to make holes for the explosives that blasted tunnels through mountains. According to legend, he won a drilling race against a steampowered drill but then died, hammer in hand, from exhaustion or a burst heart. The man who defeated a machine became a symbol for many cultural movements, including labor, which celebrated John Henry as a means of emphasizing class solidarity for working people, regardless of race or national background.

FRED BECKER

In Fred Becker’s wood engraving, a muscular,

John Henry Loading Cotton

shirtless, barefoot John Henry carries a huge bale of cotton on his right shoulder across a paddle steamer’s gangplank, where a man waits, his mouth agape. Partially visible on a building behind John Henry’s left shoulder are the words “Bank Trust Savings” and a large dollar sign adorns the top of a church steeple. While Becker’s John Henry is not a steel driving man, he nonetheless represents tensions between human laborers and the demands of capitalism.

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BEN SHAHN

Kovno, Lithuania 1898–New York, NY 1969 Cotton Pickers, Pulaski County, Arkansas Gelatin silver print, 1935, printed circa 1936 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-2743.1986

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DOROTHEA LANGE

Hoboken, NJ 1895–San Francisco, CA 1965 Migratory Cotton Picker, Eloy, Arizona Gelatin silver print, 1940, printed 1965 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-1062.1965

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DOROTHEA LANGE

Hoboken, NJ 1895–San Francisco, CA 1965 Migratory Cotton Picker, Eloy, Pinal County, Arizona Gelatin silver print, 1940, printed 1965 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-1063.1965

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Working for various New Deal agencies, photographers and artists such as Dorothea Lange and Ben Shahn produced hundreds of thousands of prints that recorded life in America during the Great Depression. Both Lange and Shahn were deeply committed to an art of social responsibility, visible in their images of cotton pickers shown here.

BEN SHAHN Cotton Pickers, Pulaski County, Arkansas

In Arizona, Lange focused her attention on migratory agricultural laborers toiling within the state’s large-scale cotton industry. Corporations leased their land, which was watered by irrigation canals, to local growers who depended on low-paid seasonal migratory laborers to work in the fields. Lange’s closely cropped portrait of a man partially covering his face with his open, rough-skinned hand, reveals the physical toll of picking individual cotton bolls from their

DOROTHEA LANGE Migratory Cotton Picker, Eloy, Arizona

sharp-edged pods.

Five years before Lange’s photographs, Shahn captured an image of children laboring in prickly cotton fields in Arkansas. The long bags into which they put the picked cotton drag behind them. Aware of the historical connection between cotton and the enslaved individuals forced to work with the crop, Shahn sought to capture scenes whose content would “help the underprivileged” and serve “only one purpose—a moral one.”

DOROTHEA LANGE Migratory Cotton Picker, Eloy, Pinal County, Arizona

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ROY DECARAVA

New York, NY 1919–New York, NY 2009 Fashion Center Gelatin silver print, 1962 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Catherine M. Johnsen Acquisition Fund U-687.1970

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Roy DeCarava came of age during the Harlem Renaissance and was deeply affected by his time serving in the Army during World War II, stationed in the Jim Crow South. In 1958 he moved to a fourth-floor loft in New York City’s garment district, where he observed and photographed the laborers who performed the heavy, essential work of transporting materials and goods. Author Claude Brown wrote about these backbreaking jobs that were often filled by Black men in his 1965 book Manchild in the Promised Land: “I’d gotten out of the garment center, and that was the place where everybody worked. Cats used to call it a ‘slave.’ A guy who worked in the garment center wouldn’t say he had

ROY DECARAVA

a job; he’d say, ‘Man, like, I got a slave.’ That

Fashion Center

was what it amounted to. […] I had seen old men down there […] They looked like they were about sixty years old, but they were still pushing trucks through the snow.”

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HANK WILLIS THOMAS

born Plainfield, NJ 1976

Cotton Bowl Digital chromogenic print, 2011 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Olga N. Sheldon Acquisition Trust U-6506.2015

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Hank Willis Thomas’s pairing of two men, one bent among cotton plants and the other at the line of scrimmage, prompts the viewer to consider the racial and economic parallels between enslaved individuals who worked the fields and contemporary college football players who occupy a different kind of field.

HANK WILLIS THOMAS Cotton Bowl

The intersection of college athletics and labor becomes more complex when one considers that students are unpaid for labor that generates millions of dollars for their institutions. Walter Byers, the first executive director of the NCAA, called the studentathlete classification that enables this onesided profit “a neo-plantation mentality.” This resonates with the artist’s statement about his work Cotton Bowl: “the work is about the past and the present coming face to face both in land and in labor … this is perhaps a sense of history repeating itself.”

Recent developments, however, point to change. In 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that student-athletes could receive aid beyond tuition, and soon after, the NCAA permitted them to earn money via brand endorsements.

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LEWIS W. HINE

Oshkosh, WI 1874–Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 1940 Boy Going to Work, Merrimac Mills, Huntsville, Alabama, Noon Gelatin silver print, 1910 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-2143.1975

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LEWIS W. HINE

Oshkosh, WI 1874–Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 1940 Sullivan’s Delivery Boy, South Carolina Gelatin silver print, 1908 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-2035.1975

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LEWIS W. HINE

Oshkosh, WI 1874–Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 1940 Young German Steelworker, Pittsburgh Gelatin silver print, 1908 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Gift of Del Zogg U-3790.1986

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LEWIS W. HINE

Oshkosh, WI 1874–Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 1940 Oyster Shucker, Mississippi Gelatin silver print, 1911 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-2034.1975

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LEWIS W. HINE LEWIS W. HINE

Oyster Shucker, Mississippi

Boy Going to Work, Merrimac Mills, Huntsville, Alabama, Noon

Lewis W. Hine and his photographs played a critical role in the passage of the first child labor laws in the United States. His background in sociology and education inspired him to document the conditions under which children as young as six worked.

To obscure the dangerous and immoral nature of child labor, photography was forbidden in

LEWIS W. HINE Sullivan’s Delivery Boy, South Carolina

factories and Hine often disguised himself, risking personal harm, to capture his images.

LEWIS W. HINE Young German Steelworker, Pittsburgh

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REGINALD MARSH

Paris, France 1898–Dorset, VT 1954 The Park Bench Tempera on Masonite mounted on panel, 1933 Nebraska Art Association N-43.1938

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Lassitude, born of too little to eat, nothing to do and no place to go afflicts the occupants of The Park Bench.

—Reginald Marsh In this Depression-era painting by Reginald Marsh, a man with an upturned collar reads The Daily Worker on a crowded bench. The

REGINALD MARSH The Park Bench

seated figures display various postures of exhaustion and contemplation. All but the woman on the right are painted in hazy neutral colors that add to the sense of their depletion.

The Daily Worker newspaper originated in the 1920s and focused on social and labor issues.

This newspaper can also be found in another work in this exhibition, Traffic, 7th Ave. Subway

by Hendrik Glintenkamp.

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HENDRIK GLINTENKAMP

Augusta, NJ 1887–New York, NY 1946 Traffic, 7th Ave. Subway Wood engraving, 1934

University of Nebraska–Lincoln Allocation of the US Government, Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration WPA-399.18.1943

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Hendrik Glintenkamp lived and worked for many years in New York, often focusing on the difficult realities of life in the city. He was a student of Robert Henri and received an artistic education described by fellow student, artist Stuart Davis, as “radical and revolutionary.”

In this print, which was submitted to the New Deal–inspired Public Works of Art Project, Glintenkamp snuck in the Daily Worker title and logo during his last edits to the final version. Glintenkamp was also associated with The Masses, a left-wing political magazine. His affiliation with these causes may have been inspired by his observations of the disenfranchised individuals he portrayed,

HENDRIK GLINTENKAMP

much like Reginald Marsh, who painted similar

Traffic, 7th Ave. Subway

subjects. Marsh’s painting Park Bench is hung nearby and features The Daily Worker as well.

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FERNANDO SALICRUP

Harlem, NY 1946–New York, NY 2015 Luisa Capetillo 1883–1922 Silkscreen, circa 1980 University of Nebraska–Lincoln The Gloria Rodriguez Calero Collection of Puerto Rican Works on Paper U-5924.2012

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We must make others understand that we know our rights, and that if they trample on those rights, we have the right to remind them that we are incensed by the injustice of it.

—Luisa Capetillo, translated by Alan West Durán, from her book Mi opinión sobre las libertades, derechos y deberes de la mujer [My opinion on women’s freedoms, rights and duties] Employed to read newspapers aloud to workers in a tobacco factory, Luisa Capetillo used her access to the laborers to share ideas of worker liberation. A feminist, journalist, and leader of Federación Libre de Trabajadores [Free Federation of Workers], she was active

FERNANDO SALICRUP Luisa Capetillo 1883–1922

during the time when Puerto Rico was shaping its identity under American neocolonial rule at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Artist and community activist Fernando Salicrup depicted Capetillo in her iconic pantsuit, backed by a crowd of supporters.

Some of their signs read trabajadoras unios [united workers] and la clase obrera triunfara [the working class will triumph].

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AN-MY LÊ

born Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 1960 Fragment II: Cattle Drive at Perdiz Creek Ranch (Reservoir), Marfa, Texas, from Silent General Inkjet print, 2019 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Olga N. Sheldon Acquisition Trust U-6990.2022

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An-My Lê’s creative process is immersive.

Born in Vietnam and evacuated to America during the war in 1975, she considers her point of view as an outsider to be an asset to her photography. For her projects, she works very closely and sometimes participates in the events she photographs, which include military training exercises and war re-

AN-MY LÊ Fragment II: Cattle Drive at Perdiz Creek Ranch (Reservoir), Marfa, Texas, from Silent General

enactments.

In parts of her expansive series Silent General, An-My Lê explores the complexity of living and working in borderlands during times of rapid social and political change—in her words “how the past manifests in the present of American landscapes and public life.” Here, she photographed four cowboys during a moment of rest on a ranch in Texas.

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ROBERT DOISNEAU

Gentilly, France 1912–Montrouge, France 1994 Boulangerie Rue de Poitou [Bakery on a Street in Poitou] Gelatin silver print, 1971, printed 1979 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Gift of Diana M. Stenbery U-3435.11.1982

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Robert Doisneau, who spent hours walking the streets of Paris with his camera, captures a man in coveralls stepping out of a bakery with a bottle of wine tucked into his front pocket and baguette in hand. On the building’s exterior, we see a decorative image, featuring an idyllic scene of a farm worker resting his scythe on the ground and wiping his brow.

This juxtaposition contrasts myth and reality of labor, yet as we look at the man heading home after work with earned rewards, we remain grounded in real life.

In the 1930s, Doisneau worked as an industrial photographer in the Renault automobile factories, where he was distressed by the

ROBERT DOISNEAU Boulangerie Rue de Poitou [Bakery on a Street in Poitou]

working conditions. Of the people he met there, he said that “trade-union militants” were heroes, and “they do work that won’t bring them glory, yet they are propelled by feelings of justice and aspirations for a better world.”

He later worked in fashion for Vogue, but formal employment gave him “a tremendous desire to go back into the streets.”

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CHRISTINA FERNANDEZ

born Los Angeles, CA 1965

Lavanderia #5 Archival pigment print, 2002–03 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust U-7002.2022

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Christina Fernandez’s Lavanderia series features photographs of the exteriors of laundromats in East Los Angeles that reveal a great deal of the buildings’ interiors. In her own words, the series explores “how the urban landscape speaks through the bits and pieces we leave behind in our day-to-day lives.”

CHRISTINA FERNANDEZ

In Lavanderia #5, Fernandez has captured

Lavanderia #5

two figures from the back, sitting side by side as they wait for their laundry. Although their outlines are somewhat blurred, we can see that they are turned toward one another. This image prompts us to think about what we do when not working, what responsibilities remain outside earning money, and how other types of labor can infringe on true leisure.

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ISABEL BISHOP

Cincinnati, OH 1902–Riverdale, NY 1988 Office Girls Etching, 1938 University of Nebraska–Lincoln University Collection U-181.1949

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ISABEL BISHOP

Cincinnati, OH 1902–Riverdale, NY 1988 Lunch Hour Ink and wash on paper, 1940 University of Nebraska–Lincoln Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust H-225.1942

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Isabel Bishop drew inspiration from the working women she saw in Union Square, New York City. She shows them professionally and fashionably dressed, enjoying their lunch or quietly socializing. Whether they are eating, reapplying lipstick, or casually rocking on the heels of their shoes, Bishop has carefully observed the details of these figures and replicated them in her work without exaggeration or judgment. vAt this time in history, more women were entering the white-collar workforce while managing the traditional expectation of marriage and child-rearing. In this sketch and this etching, Bishop presents a respite from both the daily tasks of office work and broader societal pressures.

ISABEL BISHOP Office Girls

ISABEL BISHOP Lunch Hour

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