Justin Lander's Museum Visit

On Saturday the 23rd of October, I visited the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. I originally went to this museum for the Leonardo Di Vinci: Hand of the Genius exhibit but decided to take a look at the other exhibits as well. When viewing the other exhibits, one painting in particular caught my eye. The painting was called Alma Sewing by Francis Criss (1901-1973). After doing a little research I discovered that the artist was part of a cubist realism movement also known as “precisionism” that reached its height in popularity during the era between World War I and World War II. Many of these artists portray themes of industrialism as well as labor throughout their works.
Alma Sewing is an oil painting on canvas of an African American woman sewing on a sewing machine. I would describe this painting’s style as realism, however, the light bulb above the model features a self-portrait of the artist in a completely different setting. This seemed to be a very interesting combination of the two themes: both realism, captured in the portrayal of the model and her setting, and abstraction, shown by the artist’s self-portrait. The realism grabbed my attention while the abstraction kept me standing in front of the painting, asking myself what the artist was attempting to communicate by painting himself into the scene.
The artist’s layout of space directs the viewers gaze directly to a triangle created by the face of the woman down through her gaze toward the sewing machine, then back to her hands which guide the cloth through the machine. Through this triangle, the artist expresses to the viewer that the mind is directing the action and the hands are being used to manipulate a tool. It is also very important to call attention to the way in which Alma is presented in this painting.
First, the sweatshop scene is what might come to mind when thinking about a woman sewing, but Criss chooses instead to present Alma as a tailor of much higher standing than that of a textile worker. Alma, an African American tailor, is depicted in her room dressed cleanly and surrounded by her many tools of the trade. I was also surprised to learn that this painting was made around 1935. Alma is an African American woman and Criss chooses to paint her in a way that might have contradicted many people’s ideas of African Americans at that time. This was decades before the civil rights movement started, and in some parts of this country African Americans were still being lynched.
The color that stands out most to the viewer is the deep red that makes up Alma’s shirt. The same color red appears again on the far left side of the painting and adds some balance to an asymmetrical layout of the scene. Behind Alma is a blue curtain that sets the background as a contrast to her dark skin and brilliantly brings out her features.
Alma Sewing by Francis Criss was a brilliant combination of realism and abstraction. It called out for me to think about what the artist was trying to say by painting a skilled tailor with the artist’s self-portrait included. After a little research on the rest of Criss’ work, I came to the conclusion that Alma Sewing was by far the best painting of his career. I believe there was a strong possibility that the artist knew this as well and improvised himself into this painting in an attempt to immortalize himself.