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POSTER: LESTER BEALL (1903-1969). WASH DAY. 1
LESTER BEALL (1903-1969) WASH DAY. 1937.
39 7/8x30 1/8 inches, 101x76 1/2 cm.
Condition B+: repaired tears and restoration in margins; abrasions and restoration in image. Silk Screen.
"Beall translated European avant-garde movements into a distinctly American, precise modernism. In each of the years 1937, 1939 and 1941, he designed a six-poster series promoting the Rural Electrification Administration. This New Deal agency was responsible for bringing cheap power to rural America, where eighty percent of the farms lacked electricity." (Resnick p. 54). The R.E.A. existed not only to help rural America enter the modern age, but also served to create jobs for a Depression-ravaged country. Elevating visual communication to an extremely efficient level, Beall's style involves a technique close to the ideogram, employing basic, clear and direct images, free from any exterior influences that would lessen the pure message. At a time when the majority of the rural populace that this poster was intended to reach was illiterate, Beall's simple silk-screen "shows another benefit of rural electrification: making domestic chores easier. The stark-white washing machine dominates the interior of the silhouetted farmhouse, emphasizing that the wash can now be done inside the home - with the hot running water electricity brings." (Resnick p. 55) Resnick 25, Mechanical Are p. 155.
39 7/8x30 1/8 inches, 101x76 1/2 cm.
Condition B+: repaired tears and restoration in margins; abrasions and restoration in image. Silk Screen.
"Beall translated European avant-garde movements into a distinctly American, precise modernism. In each of the years 1937, 1939 and 1941, he designed a six-poster series promoting the Rural Electrification Administration. This New Deal agency was responsible for bringing cheap power to rural America, where eighty percent of the farms lacked electricity." (Resnick p. 54). The R.E.A. existed not only to help rural America enter the modern age, but also served to create jobs for a Depression-ravaged country. Elevating visual communication to an extremely efficient level, Beall's style involves a technique close to the ideogram, employing basic, clear and direct images, free from any exterior influences that would lessen the pure message. At a time when the majority of the rural populace that this poster was intended to reach was illiterate, Beall's simple silk-screen "shows another benefit of rural electrification: making domestic chores easier. The stark-white washing machine dominates the interior of the silhouetted farmhouse, emphasizing that the wash can now be done inside the home - with the hot running water electricity brings." (Resnick p. 55) Resnick 25, Mechanical Are p. 155.
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May 12, 2008 1:30 PM EDT
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