Max Kalish, born Valozin, Lithuania 1891-died New York City 1945 Search this
Medium:
bronze
Dimensions:
15 3/8 x 5 7/8 x 3 1/2 in. (39.2 x 15.0 x 8.9 cm.)
Type:
Sculpture
Date:
1930
Luce Center Label:
Max Kalish chose laborers, particularly steelworkers and riveters, as his subject because of their important role in industrialized America. Factories employed so many people that to Kalish these workers represented the common man. He appreciated the rhythm and grace that workers showed in their daily tasks, and captured both the physical effort and the well-deserved rest of his laborers, as shown here in The End of the Day. His images of the “heroic worker” were aimed at restoring faith and optimism to a dispirited population suffering the ravages of the Depression.
Luce Object Quote:
“As I mingle among the workers in factories or in the open, I find them in their natural poses . . . while at rest there is a sense of rhythm and beauty that compares favorably with the great sculptural themes of the past.” Artist quoted in Labor Sculpture by Max Kalish, 1938
