Image

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Gerta Overbeck

Man with Wheelbarrow, 1921

Now On View

Description

Maker

Gerta Overbeck, 1898-1977, German

Title

Man with Wheelbarrow

Year

1921

Medium

Oil paint on lined brown paper

Materials/Techniques

Materials

oil paint

Supports

Brown paper, lined

Dimensions

73.7 x 50.2 cm (29 x 19 11/16 inches) (sheet)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Original--in pencil, LLC:GO

Type

Credit

Pearl and Ernest Nathan Fund and Mary B. Jackson Fund

Object Number

1998.24

Exhibition History

"The Center Cannot Hold"

March 1 - July 1, 1999

Modern and Contemporary Galleries

A male laborer, perhaps a bricklayer, dominates this expressive work. A woman looking upward and the figure at center seem held back behind barricades.

Gerta Overbeck often depicted modern industry and workers—especially from the perspective of women. World War I (1914–1918) had pushed record numbers of women into jobs typically reserved for men, but even after gaining the right to vote in 1919, German women still struggled for acceptance. This portrayal may plead for the value of women workers or, perhaps more personally, the value of women artists.

Overbeck was an active participant in Hanover’s Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) group. Its members critically confronted the harsh economic realities of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Use

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