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Union Square

Reginald Marsh, George Charles Miller, and others

Union Square

1932

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Union Square

1932

Physical Qualities Crayon lithograph, Sheet: 400 x 299 mm. (15 3/4 x 11 3/4 in.) Image: 344 x 215 mm. (13 9/16 x 8 7/16 in.)
Credit Line Print Fund
Object Number 1935.11.2
Orozco was one of the only non-American artists asked to create a print for "The American Scene, No. 1", the first of two portfolios, with six lithographs apiece, that were published by the short-lived Contemporary Print Group in New York. In these portfolios, the contributing artists addressed various social and political issues as well as economic hardships facing Depression-era America. Jacob Burck’s image shows the arrest of a protester brandishing a sign with the labor slogan “work or bread.” (In this context “bread” refers to easy living.) Reginald Marsh’s composition calls attention to down-on-their-luck men sitting on the base of the George Washington equestrian monument in Manhattan’s Union Square. George Grosz offers a biting lithograph of a World War I veteran with an amputated leg begging on the streets. Orozco created a powerful and wrenching condemnation of lynching through his horrific scene of mutilated bodies hanging from trees and burning in flames. The following year impressions of "The Lynching" were shown in two exhibitions in New York: "An Art Commentary on Lynching" (presented by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and "The Struggle for Negro Rights" (presented by a coalition of left-wing organizations).
Bought from Contingent Print Fund
Robert Flynn Johnson, BMA, "American Prints 1870-1950, 4 April - 2 June 1974, cat 66.

Rena Hoisington, BMA, "Crossing Borders: Mexican Modernist Prints," November 19, 2017 - March 11, 2017.

Inscribed: Recto: at lower right, in stone: "R.M. '33"; below image, at right, in graphite: "Reginald Marsh"; Verso: none.

Markings: WV: BFK

Artist

Reginald Marsh

1897–1953

American, born France, 1898-1954
Meet Reginald Marsh

Printer

George Charles Miller

1893–1964

American, 1894-1965
Meet George Charles Miller

Explore the Collection Further

Reginald Marsh
New Lots Express Brooklyn
1933
Jack Markow and WPA/Federal Art Project, New York City
Union Square
1935–1938
Reginald Marsh and Friends of American Art
Loco-Erie Watering
1928
Peter Milton
Interiors I: Family Reunion
1983
Reginald Marsh
Locomotive Lehigh Valley
1928
Girlie Pettway and Pearlie Irby Pettway
Diamond in Square
1944–1954
Reginald Marsh and Cleveland Print Club
Switch Engines, Erie Yards, Jersey City
1947
Eiraku Wazen
Square Dish Decorated with the 'Three Friends of Winter' Motif
1886
Reginald Marsh
The Barker
1930
Alexey Titarenko
Hay Market Square from the Rooftop, St. Petersburg
1998
Reginald Marsh
Cuba (Artillery)
1928
Judith La Scola
Square Bottles
1998