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Art/Work: Labor, Identity, And Society, Zirui Feng, Elinor G. Gass, Ran Li, Lauren C. Mcveigh, Matthew S. Montes, Lin Zhu, Yan Sun

Schmucker Art Catalogs

Artists, perhaps to emphasize their own dedication to the intellectual and manual skills required for making art, have long been drawn to the theme of labor, both in their depictions of workers and scenes of making. In the late seventeenth century, Dutch paintings frequently portrayed earnest and diligent artisans performing trades at shops or on the streets. Later, rapid economic, social and political changes throughout Europe in the mid-nineteenth century led to a more radical approach to realist representations of labor. This exhibition ART/WORK: Labor, Identity, and Society considers these art-historical precedents to explore the issues of labor in art. …