Dublin Core
Title
Description
Blacks and grays are used to create a scene of women working in a factory at sewing machines. Birkin uses this monochrome palette to create a sense of weariness: no light comes in through the dark windows, leaving miserly electric lights inside to shine down on the employees and their work. This dramatic disparity in lighting gives us the impression that they have spent hours inside the factory to earn what they can. Despite a feeling of weariness that the darkness conjures, there is also a strange calmness to the print, despite what would be a noisy and hectic factory. A grid of electric cords separates viewers from the workers, almost like looking in through a window. There is also a separation of the workers as well, through these wires as well as the lighting. We pick out individual workers and see them separately, rather than as a connected unit. While it's dark outside, the women do not seem to be panicked or worried about the passing time. They are calmly and stoically doing the work that needs to be done.
About the Artist
Born in Philadelphia, PA, Birkin was a talented artist who created pieces in many different styles and mediums. His studies kept him near home during the 1930s, learning first at the Fleischer Memorial Graphic Sketch Club for six years before attending the Philadelphia Museum College of Art. This education gave him a solid foundation in muralism, drawing, and painting; by 1939 he was exhibiting his tempera painting, Cotton Pickers, at the New York World’s Fair. Birkin was employed by the Federal Arts Project between 1940 and 1942. He worked in watercolors, oils, and prints, exhibiting mostly in the Philadelphia area: the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Free Library, United Artists Gallery, Civic Theater, and various private galleries. Birkin also designed and painted several murals—at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Fort Meade, MD; at the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens; and one entitled “Juarez and Lincoln” at the Navy Department Building in Mexico City—none of which still exist, so far as we know. Over the next forty years, he continued both his own education (a master’s in fine arts from Temple University in 1952) and taught high school students in New Jersey for more than twenty years. Birkin’s works were shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Academy, and the Brooklyn Museum, along with various one-many shows at the Morris Gallery, New York. A detailed appreciation and extensive gallery of Birkin’s art is available at a website created by his son, David Birkin.
About the Artist
Born in Philadelphia, PA, Birkin was a talented artist who created pieces in many different styles and mediums. His studies kept him near home during the 1930s, learning first at the Fleischer Memorial Graphic Sketch Club for six years before attending the Philadelphia Museum College of Art. This education gave him a solid foundation in muralism, drawing, and painting; by 1939 he was exhibiting his tempera painting, Cotton Pickers, at the New York World’s Fair. Birkin was employed by the Federal Arts Project between 1940 and 1942. He worked in watercolors, oils, and prints, exhibiting mostly in the Philadelphia area: the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Free Library, United Artists Gallery, Civic Theater, and various private galleries. Birkin also designed and painted several murals—at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Fort Meade, MD; at the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens; and one entitled “Juarez and Lincoln” at the Navy Department Building in Mexico City—none of which still exist, so far as we know. Over the next forty years, he continued both his own education (a master’s in fine arts from Temple University in 1952) and taught high school students in New Jersey for more than twenty years. Birkin’s works were shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Academy, and the Brooklyn Museum, along with various one-many shows at the Morris Gallery, New York. A detailed appreciation and extensive gallery of Birkin’s art is available at a website created by his son, David Birkin.
Creator
Birkin, Morton (1919-1984)
Publisher
Date
Contributor
Secor, Caleb (description and biography)
Helquist, Morgan (photography)
Helquist, Morgan (photography)
Source
New Deal Museum, Mount Morris NY
Object #FA 190
Object #FA 190
Format
jpeg, 1.9 MB
jpeg, 925 KB
jpeg, 925 KB
Type
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Lithograph on paper
Physical Dimensions
Window: 10 1/4 × 12 1/2 in
Sheet: 11 3/8 × 15 7/8 in.
Mat: 18 × 20 in.
Sheet: 11 3/8 × 15 7/8 in.
Mat: 18 × 20 in.