Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s “The Harvesters” (1565), at the Metropolitan Museum, “where it has been for almost a century now,” Randy Kennedy writes, “its peasants scything, sleeping and slurping their porridge on what was supposed to be a July or August day among the Netherlandish sheaves.”
See 11 Photos in Slide Show at NY Times: Art For the Worker’s Sake
old school labor day break.
and weren’t they great…
Have always loved Bruegel’s work–something so familiar and yet so otherworldly about it. Charmed….
That’s it Lori. I couldn’t describe it. It does feel like I’ve been then and yet 100’s of years old. Again, you put in words what I couldn’t….magic.
“I don’t know if art is the place to talk about politics. I certainly think it is, but I know a lot of people don’t think so anymore.” Which comes first, the disappearance of the labor force (read: middle class) or the disappearance of artists depicting labor as art? Maybe this retrospective will kick start a much needed national dialogue.
A gentle reminder of the past. The Bruegel’s (Elder and Younger) put a stop-action to all their art works, giving the viewer a moment in time to observe and reflect how those moments were being spent.
Observe and reflect.
More.
Please.
Smiling. Yes. More please. Beautifully stated.
Love Breugel … and thought I’d share a bit of Lowry from the industrial era.http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.jonathancrossfield.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/lowry-ourtown.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.jonathancrossfield.com/blog/2012/05/why-keeping-it-simple-is-harder-than-you-think.html&h=516&w=750&tbnid=cBT91fgXQHI0pM:&docid=69wthmQJyBBrQM&ei=iCruVfT9FoSVNqG4rYAM&tbm=isch&client=safari&ved=0CDAQMygBMAFqFQoTCPTh_YOW5scCFYSKDQodIVwLwA
So love this Val, thanks for sharing.