Sabotage c. 1944

Donald Vogel made this print, Sabotage, in 1925. It depicts a capsized train car spilling its cargo, with onlookers in the foreground, and a factory visible behind. The print was made during a period of labor unrest in the United States, when workers were fighting for better wages and working conditions, and the Industrial Workers of the World union was at its peak. In this context, the image speaks to the fraught relationship between labor and capital. Visually, Vogel emphasizes the harshness of industrial labor. In this period prints were cheap to produce and distribute, and so were often used to spread political messages. To better understand this print, and its social context, we could turn to publications of the era, such as union newspapers and pamphlets. These sources can give us a better understanding of the social and institutional contexts that shaped this artwork.