The Sweat of Their Face: Portraying American Workers

“The Sweat of Their Face” combines art and social history with representations of American laborers across genres and centuries of art. Artists such as Winslow Homer, Dorothea Lange, Elizabeth Catlett and Lewis Hine depict laborers throughout the changing landscape of America; from child and slave laborers to miners, railway and steel workers, to the modern gradual disappearance of the worker. Approximately 75 objects in all media (including video) highlight a point of connection between the artists and their predominantly anonymous subjects.

TEXT Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.

IMAGE Credit: Washington, D.C. Government charwoman (American Gothic) by Gordon Parks, gelatin silver print, 1942 (printed later). National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Corcoran Collection (The Gordon Parks Collection) Courtesy of and © The Gordon Parks Foundation