Fletcher Martin
Police Brutality Cops Beat Protestors at Factory, 1940-1950s
Gouache on Paper
22 × 17 in / 55.9 × 43.2 cm
$ 12,500.00
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This expressionist painting depicting brutal cops beating workers protesting at a factory comes from the social consciousness of artist Fletcher Martin. The view is close and tight, as if the...
This expressionist painting depicting brutal cops beating workers protesting at a factory comes from the social consciousness of artist Fletcher Martin. The view is close and tight, as if the artist himself were part of the scene. The viewer can feel the moment's pain in the bold strokes and strong lines of his paint application, which burst with energy. The painting is as abstract as it is representational. Up close, it's mostly broad areas of paint, but from a distance, all the strokes fit, and the figures reveal themselves. A man lies on the ground with a cop's foot pressed on his back while he brandishes a billy club. Although this is a scene of the slaughter of the innocent, the painting promotes the principle that dignity lies in every man, even those who toil among the grit of smokestacks. His sympathy for the common man dates back to the early 1930s, when he was influenced by the Mexican painter-muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. Martin was his assistant. His other blue-collar employment included migratory farm work, lumberjacking, and boxing as a light heavyweight in the Navy. Signed upper right. Framed under glass to 30.25 x 25