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Clearing the Right of Way (mural study, Garrett, Indiana Post Office)
ca. 1938
Joe Cox
Born: Indianapolis, Indiana 1915
oil on canvas mounted on paperboard
33 1/4 x 29 3/8 in. (84.3 x 74.6 cm)
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Transfer from the Internal Revenue Service through the General Services Administration
1962.8.66
Smithsonian American Art Museum
4th Floor, Luce Foundation Center
During the 1930s, Joe Cox worked for the Works Progress Administration, a government-sponsored program that put artists to work and made them part of America’s workforce. He identified with manual laborers whose survival was at stake, and Cox’s mural study for the Garrett, Indiana, post office reflects his sympathies. He chose to show the loggers hard at work, their muscular bodies bending over their tasks. Garrett had been mapped out in the 1870s by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The Chicago division of the B&O main line ran through, carrying people and goods to Baltimore and Washington, fueling Garrett’s economy and providing work for townspeople. During the Depression, however, the railroad’s consolidation led to many layoffs. This mural would have served as a reminder of the town’s heyday, when hard work and risk taking brought prosperity.
For more information about this work visit the Luce Foundation Center.
Keywords
Architecture Exterior - civic - post office
Architecture - vehicle - train
Cityscape - Indiana - Garrett
Figure(s) in exterior - rural
Occupation - industry - lumber
Study - mural study
New Deal - Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture - Indiana
painting
paint - oil
fabric - canvas
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