Electric Production and Direction
Object Details
- Luce Center Label
- William Karp created Electric Production and Direction as a mural design for the Public Works of Art Project in New York during the 1930s. The image shows disembodied, muscular hands and arms as components in a complex machine. It is difficult to tell who is in control. The hands at the top might be twisting and pulling strings to operate the machine, but the giant eye in the background suggests there is a greater power watching over. Mechanical forms echo the shape of the clenched fist in the center, but the fist is also tightly clamped in place. This sinister combination of flesh and metal evokes a common fear during the 1930s that machines would not only replace factory workers, but would literally absorb them into their clinking, whirring mechanisms.
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor
- Data Source
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Date
- ca. 1933-1934
- Object number
- 1964.1.128A-B
- Artist
- William Karp, born New York City 1905
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Painting
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- two panels, total: 55 3/4 x 27 1/8 in. (141.7 x 69.0 cm.)
- See more items in
- Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture
- On View
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 4th Floor, 37B
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 4th Floor
- Topic
- Architecture\machine
- Figure\fragment\arm
- Study\mural study
- Allegory\element\energy
- Allegory\arts and sciences\industry
- Architecture\industry\power plant
- New Deal\Public Works of Art Project\New York City
- Record ID
- saam_1964.1.128A-B
