Welders at Electric Boat Company
Artist
Beatrice Cuming
(1903 - 1975)
Datec. 1944
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions32 x 39 in.
ClassificationsOil Painting
Credit LineCharles F. Smith Fund
Terms
Object number1972.01
DescriptionCuming worked as a guard for the Electric Boat Company in Groton for three months in 1943. The job resulted in a commission from the company to document the building of submarines in a series of at least six paintings; "Welders at Electric Boat Company"(pl.5) is one of two located today.(2) It was not an easy painting to complete. When she first set up to sketch at Electric Boat, male workers were reluctant subjects, frequently confrontational toward a woman artist in their midst. Cuming held her ground and eventually gained their respect; her experiences in the WPA programs of the 1930s, when women artists had equal status with men, likely contributed to her success. She returned their admiration; her belief that working-class Americans were the source of national vigor led to her focus on industrial subjects.(3)
In "Welders at Electric Boat Company", workers and machinery meld as a dynamic whole, united by a palette of sienna browns, ochers, and dull greens. Alternating linear and rounded shapes comprising the machinery and submarine parts surrounding the welders form a vibrant alternating rhythm that energizes the scene. The welders' visors mask any sense of their identities and the visors' curving forms echo the man-made shapes around them, implying the men are not so much individuals as interchangeable parts of an inhuman process.
N.N
NOTES:
2. Ibid, p. 27.
3. Barbara Zabel, "Beatrice Cuming and Her Time," in William C. Bendig, Cecile S. Tyl, and Barbara Zabel, "Beatrice Cuming: 1903-1974"(New London, Conn.: Lyman Allyn Art Museum, 1990), p. 14.
On View
Not on view
