Steelworker

Artist Luis Jimenez (American, 1940-2006)

Date1993

Dimensions(Sheet) H: 32 1/2 in. (82.6 cm); W: 26 1/2 in. (67.3 cm)

MediumColor lithograph.

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineCarl B. Spitzer Fund

Object number

2004.64

Not on View

Label TextLuis Jiménez celebrates working class people with images that portray labor as heroic. Steelworker recalls the 1930s Depression-era “working-class heroes” of WPA (Works Progress Administration) artists, as well as the politically charged paintings of workers by Mexican muralists such as José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949) and Diego Rivera (1886–1957). Born in El Paso, Texas, to Mexican immigrants, Jiménez frequently conceived his figures in terms of ethnicity, social issues, and subject matter related to both his Mexican and his Southwestern U.S. roots. This lithograph is based on his initial design for a monumental fiberglass public sculpture commissioned by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority for Buffalo, New York, in 1982.