Employed
The artist and teacher Claude Flight promoted linocuts – a relief printing method that utilized the quotidian material of linoleum—as a technique that reflected the goals of the modern era. Not only would they employ a modern aesthetic, linocuts, he argued, could be sold at a price on a par with other consumer items aimed at a mass audience. Flight also believed artists should respond to the contemporary world in their subject matter. Unemployed and its companion Employed reflect his support for socialism as well as provide commentary on the global economic depression. In 1932, the nadir of what was known as the "Great Slump," almost three million people were jobless in Britain; unemployment numbers would stay above a million until the first year of the Second World War. Unemployed contains a group of men and women workers with children and animals in tow carrying a large banner with a red rectangle. Unified, they stride forward and face off against the all-male group in Employed, whose ceremonial uniforms and rigidity give the impression that the figures are toy soldiers from another era.
Artwork Details
- Title: Employed
- Artist: Claude Flight (British, 1881–1955)
- Date: ca. 1934
- Medium: Linocut
- Dimensions: Sheet: 8 11/16 in. × 11 in. (22 × 28 cm)
Image: 7 11/16 × 10 7/16 in. (19.6 × 26.5 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Purchase, Leslie and Johanna Garfield Gift, Lila Acheson Wallace, Charles and Jessie Price, and David T Schiff Gifts, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, Dolores Valvidia Hurlburt Bequest, PECO Foundation and Friends of Drawings and Prints Gifts, and funds from various donors, 2019
- Object Number: 2019.592.344
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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Claude Flight
ca. 1922
Claude Flight
ca. 1926
Claude Flight
1935–55
Claude Flight
1930s
Claude Flight
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