Linoleum cut on tissue-thin Japan paper, circa 1929. 330x254 mm; 13x10 inches, full margins. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. A very good, dark impression of this very scarce print.
Workmen is an extraordinary example of printmaking from the Harlem Renaissance era. James Lesesne Wells's early career as a printmaker is characterized by his easy mastery of block prints. Wells was most innovative with prints like from this period Workmen, The Negro Wage Earner and Builders--portraying the everyday experience of working class blacks in bold, graphic compositions. A modernist, Wells popularized urban subjects before the WPA era. Wells was also unusually successful in getting his work published in leading black periodicals like The Crisis and Opportunity as well as in publications by writers Alain Locke, Marianne Moore, Willis Richardson and Carter Woodson.
