Oranges
Sybil Andrews Canadian, born England
Not on view
Manual labor was a dominant theme in Andrews’s oeuvre. Oranges, which shows a line of men moving boxes of imported produce, is her first linocut to feature this subject. The men advance in a circular direction toward the open truck, their movements echoed by the shadows their bodies cast. As oranges were not grown commercially in Britain, their presence and that of the crates signal the rise of imported goods (in contrast to a reliance on domestic produce) and the global reach of the British Empire. Andrews praised hard work, both in the workforce and in art production. In addition to taking care of her younger siblings after her father moved to Canada, she was a welder during World War I, a schoolteacher, and then a secretary (at the Grosvenor School).
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