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Arnold FriedmanDepression Era New York City - Journey Back in Time - American Scene Painting1935
1935
$40,000
£30,380.99
€35,100.08
CA$56,061.44
A$62,743.30
CHF 32,747.18
MX$765,144.84
NOK 419,119.35
SEK 396,750.13
DKK 261,947.22
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About the Item
This is a painting about a man who travels back into the past and engages with a different stage in his life.
Arnold Friedman worked at the New York City Post Office for four decades, and after his retirement, he returned to that bleak world to paint realistic depictions of the regimented life the workers endured each day. In the present work, "Leaving on Schedule," the artist depicts mailmen in almost military formation as they perform their repetitive end-of-day tasks. He does not show any faces except that of the supervisor. The mailmen are cloaked in the same uniform. They are not characterized as individuals but reduced to basic shapes. Their heavy over-the-shoulder mailbags symbolize the weight people have to bear. To reinforce the concept of bearing-the-weight a scale is shown in use. Friedman leaves a vast space in the foreground empty to imply the emptiness of the mailmen's lives.
This is a homecoming for Friedman. He is looking back at his life and assessing it in cold, hard terms. Moreover, Freidman is making a statement about the hardship of people's lives. The painting was done during the Depression, and the mailman represents most of us.
American Scene Painting, Depression Era, New York City, Post Office. Ash Can School
Arnold Aaron Friedman (American, 1874-1946), "Leaving on Schedule", Oil on Wood Panel, circa 1935, signed, and faintly inscribed "New York P.O. STA. Y" lower right, paper label and Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc. label to verso, giltwood frame. Image: 11.5" H x 26.5" W; frame: 15.25" H x 30.25" W. Provenance: Sotheby's, New York, 20 June 1985, Lot 229. Hirschl & Adler, New York
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- Creator:Arnold Friedman (1874-1946, American)
- Creation Year:1935
- Dimensions:Height: 12 in (30.48 cm)Width: 27 in (68.58 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:thin layer of slightly yellow varnish yet presents quite well for the age of the work Frame has a few chips in the gilt Age-appropriate wear; some areas of craquelure.
- Gallery Location:Miami, FL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU385316414752
Arnold Friedman
Modernist painter Arnold Friedman, was born in New York City. He did not study art until 1905, with Robert Henri at the Art Students League in New York City. He supported himself by working in the post-office. Eleven paintings by Arnold Friedman were shown in New York City in 2002 at the Berry-Hill Galleries in the exhibition, High Notes of American Modernism: Selections from the Tommy and Gill LiPuma Collection. Friedman's paintings appeared in two exhibitions in New York City in 2003, a one-man show at the Barbara Mathes Gallery, and a survey, American Art: 1750 to the Present, at the Richard York Gallery. A comprehensive 1986 exhibition of approximately one hundred eleven paintings and some watercolors and drawings was held at the Salander-O-Reilly Galleries in New York City. The show, Arnold Friedman (1874-1946): An Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors, gave rise to an extensive catalogue with an essay by critic Hilton Kramer. Arnold Friedman participated, from February 14-16, 1936, in the First Congress of American Artists against War and Fascism, in New York City. An extant publication records the essays of painters Stuart Davis and Peter Blume, photographer Margaret Bourke-White, sculptor Paul Manship and critic Lewis Mumford, among others, as well as the artists who attended, including painters Max Weber, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Jose Clemente Orozco, Harry Sternberg, Arnold Blanch and John Groth.
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