Art With A. Hart: The Age of Industry and the Arts

My exhibit features works of art that depict and represent industry. I chose this as a theme because I believe that industry has had a very strong influence and impact over the course of recent history and continues to have a large impact today. Industry is not something that is generally considered synonymous with beauty so how artist choose to depict industry is very interesting. It is interesting to see what artists have to say about industry. One motif that is common in many of the works of art in my exhibit is repetition. Whether it be multiple smokestacks or multiple pieces of machinery in a factory, repetition is used to explore the extreme levels of production in the age of industry. The amount of goods we are able to produce these days is astonishing is when put in historical context. Another theme in these works of art is the interaction between the natural world and the industrial world. Some of the images show dense factory centers surrounded by hills or trees. The nature stands in stark contrast to the machinery. I do not believe that industry is depicted favorably in many of these works. It is instead depicted as a force of destruction and as monotonous. For example the piece entitled “Industrial Hall (Phillip Morris)” shows a rather bland, block-shaped factory that has very little that is beautiful about it. It should also be noted that Phillip Morris is a tobacco company so not only is the building ugly, but its purpose is arguably sinister.

Walker Evans, “[63 Views and Studies of Ohio Clay Plants and Workers, Commissioned by Fortune Magazine For the Article "Clay: The Commonest Industrial Raw Material", Published January 1951]”, 1950, Not on display