Description
In this painting, enormous hands hold scythes, pickaxes, and shovels, symbolizing the brutal work of the chain gang. Johnson may have seen men like this when he was a child in South Carolina, but he might also have chosen this subject while working for the Works Progress Administration, where archivists worked to preserve the stories and songs of the gangs.
Image
Oil On Plywood
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation
