The Market Workers

Albert Gold depicted the gritty, everyday experiences of Philadelphia’s working class. Here two hunched market employees intently focus on the work before them. They are likely operating a stall at either the Reading Terminal Market or the Italian Market, two food markets in Philadelphia where Gold drew and painted frequently. The lithograph is composed of passages of cross-hatching and scratchy lines. The workers’ white uniforms stand in bright contrast to the darkness of their worktable. This lithograph was exhibited at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. Three years later, in 1942, Gold made a painting of the same subject.

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