Gerrit Sinclair

Figure, 1936
linoleum cut, signed in image
6 x 5 in
SKU: 13949g
$950
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The print 'Jones Island' is something of a self portrait. In the image, an artist stands before and easel, depicting the docks and buildings on the coast. The title indicates that this is Jones Island in Milwaukee, the peninsula along Lake Michigan that today is home to largely industrial buildings. The buildings and figures in the print suggest that this might be a view of the last of the Kashubian or German immigrant settlements on the peninsula before they were evicted in the 1940s to make way for the development of the harbor. The artist in the image thus acts as a documentarian of these peoples. The careful line-work of the woodblock engraving adds a sense of expressionism to the scene, leaving the figures and buildings looking distraught and dirty, though the image nonetheless falls into the Social Realist category that dominated American artists during the Great Depression.

This print was published in 1936 as part of the Wisconsin Artists' Calendar for the year 1937, which included 52 original, hand-made prints – one for each week of the year.

6 x 5 inches, image
10 x 7.13 inches, sheet
13.43 x 12.43 inches, frame
Signed "GS" in the print block,upper left
Entitled "Jones Island" lower left (covered by matting)
Inscribed "Wood Engraving" lower center (covered by matting)
Artist name "Gerrit V. Sinclair" lower right (covered by matting)
Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting and museum glass, all housed in a silver gilded moulding.
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