Tobacco Farmers 1947

Robert Gwathmey's *Tobacco Farmers* uses shape and color in a way that feels both direct and strangely dreamlike. He reduces the world to blocks of color, but the scene still vibrates with life. Look at how the deep blue of the overalls on the central figure pushes forward, contrasted with the dusty rose of the sky. The plants are simplified into these bold, almost cartoonish shapes, yet you can still feel the weight of the labor. It’s a screen print, so everything is flat and matte, a deliberate choice, no doubt, to emphasize the graphic quality and maybe the flatness reflects the starkness of the scene itself. That intense focus on color reminds me of Milton Avery; both artists distilled their observations of the world into essential forms, making images that stick with you long after you’ve seen them. Art is always about seeing what’s already there but showing us how to see it, too.