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Longshoremen Returning from Work
Alice Neel American
Not on view
The title of this nocturnal cityscape alludes to contemporary headlines about labor strife among ship workers. Widely publicized battles over union formation for fair hours and wages pervaded the 1930s, both domestically and internationally, but Neel’s painting concerns a particular strike involving New York longshoremen in 1936 and 1937, organized partly by Pat Whalen (Neel's portrait of Whalen appears in the section "Counter/Culture"). Among other reports of this extended conflict, Neel read about the strike in the leftist newspapers to which she subscribed. She shows workers walking nonchalantly down the street, presumably on their way home, and commingling with other residents who appear oblivious to their fraught predicament.
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