EXHIBITION OVERVIEW Labor advocate and garment manufacturer Ben Goldstein, with the support of his wife Beatrice, left to The Library of Congress -- and the nation -- a collection of American prints and drawings informed by a sympathy for the condition of working people. A native New Yorker, over decades he collected works that stirred his very personal interest in the city of his birth, the American people, and the human condition during the first half of the twentieth century. His concerns encompassed a broad spectrum of social and political issues that touched on life in urban centers and in rural areas, American labor and industry, and the experience and achievements of minority groups. Along with landmark images in the history of American political art, Ben Goldstein assembled outstanding holdings of works by creators who shared his social concerns. Among these artists were women, African Americans, and the Mexican muralists who were so influential at the time. The collection is particularly rich in images from the 1930s, when the turmoil and uncertainty of the Depression led increasing numbers of artists to turn toward socially relevant subject matter. Their images include moving portraits, scathing satires, haunting images of social ills, and more lighthearted depictions of life in the first half of the twentieth century. The collection represents the legacy of realist artists Robert Henri, John Sloan, and Thomas Hart Benton, under whom many of the artists in the exhibition studied and who stood as advocates of representational art. These artists rejected abstraction–in spite of its growing influence in America–as irrelevant and inaccessible. Their empathetic depictions of ordinary men and women enduring or enjoying their everyday lives expressed the pain and rare pleasures experienced by Americans during a period that witnessed two world wars and a devastating economic depression. Artists used their art to fight for civil rights and against social or economic injustice. In a time of almost universal hardship their images conveyed understanding. These prints and drawings let people know for a moment that they were not alone. Life of the People: Realist Prints and Drawings from the Ben and Beatrice Goldstein Collection, 1912-1948 All of the exhibition's fifty-nine works on paper are reproduced in the catalog with captions and essays. Edited by: Harry L. Katz, curator of popular and applied graphic art at the Library of Congress and curator of the exhibition. Essays by: Bernard F. Reilly, director of research and access at the Chicago Historical Society and the author of American Political Prints, 1766-1876. Garnett McCoy, curator emeritus of the Archives of American Art and author of David Smith, a documentary monograph, Archives of American Art: a Directory of Resources, and such articles as "The Rockwell Kent Papers" ( Journal of the Archives of American Art ). Published by the Library of Congress Paper, 9 5/8 by 8 1/4 inches, 119 pages, 51 duotone and 8 color illustrations ISBN 0-8444-0993-6 $19.95 (plus $5 shipping and handling) To order, please contact the Library of Congress Sales Shop, 101 Independence Ave, SE, Washington, D.C. 20540-4985, 202-707-0204. Check or credit card accepted.