Description:
allegory; animal; monster; black and white; figure
Label Text:
Gropper began his career in the visual arts by drawing cartoons for the New York Tribune in the early 1920s. According to an apocryphal story he was sent to cover a meeting of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.), and was instantly converted to the cause of labor rights and social justice. Well known for his leftist politics, Gropper continued throughout his career to make illustrations that promoted his views, in addition to making paintings and prints.
This particular image was published in the September 19, 1939, issue of the leftist magazine The New Masses, on which he served as a member of the executive board. Gropper described his relationship to The New Masses in a letter to the SCMA after the drawing's purchase in 1941: "This publication allows me complete freedom of ideas and expression, and I therefore contribute to that publication my drawings for reproduction every week, without any remuneration."
Tags:
allegory Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1941.14.1 |
