Photo By Gail
O. (Osvaldo) Louis Guglielmi (1906 – 1956) described Terror In Brooklyn (1941), one of his best known works, as “a premonition of war and tragedy.” On a desolate Brooklyn street, three nuns are shown entrapped by life-size bell jar; they seem to cower in the presence of a bandaged pelvis that hangs, like a crucifix or relic, from a nearby building. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: O. Louis Guglielmi, Terror In Brooklyn
Photo By Gail
The title of this work, One Third of a Nation (1939) references President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1937 inaugural address in which he proclaimed, “I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.” One Third of a Nation is also the title of Arthur Arent’s 1938 play, which emphasized the plight of the poor and was funded by the WPA’s Federal Theater Project. In this painting, O. Louis Guglielmi (1906 – 1956) draws attention to the horrid living conditions during the Great Depression. The forms in the foreground resemble coffins, and subsequently suggest a similar reading of the brick tenements behind them. The floral wreath adorning the building’s cornice reinforces this metaphor.
Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.