4x5 transparency scanned on Hasselblad Flextight X1 by Ed Pollard-2017.

Club Julio A. Mella (Cuban Workers' Club)

Artist Henry Glintenkamp (American, 1887 - 1946)

Date1937

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions26 1/4 × 32 1/4 in. (66.7 × 81.9 cm)
Overall, Frame: 35 3/4 × 41 3/4 × 2 3/8 in. (90.8 × 106 × 6 cm)

ClassificationsModern art

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.2248

Terms

Club
People
Men
Women
Interior
Eating
Drinking
Posters
African-American Theme
Gray
White
Black
Brown
Blue
New York

On View

Not on view

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting of a busy restaurant scene. In the foreground, on the left, there is a man's back - he is wearing a gray overcoat and hat. He is conversing with two others: a woman in a brown overcoat and hat with a feather, and a man with a mustache. They sit at a rectangular table with a white tablecloth. The man with the mustache is gazing down or out at the viewer; his eyes are shaded. People are talking, eating, and smoking. There are posters hanging on the walls in the background; a newspaper kiosk is in the upper left corner.

Label TextHenry Glintenkamp American, 1887–1946 Club Julio A. Mella (Cuban Workers' Club), 1937 Oil on canvas All of the food in Henry Glintenkamp’s Club Julio A. Mella is served up with a heavy dose of politics. Posters on the back wall reference Mexican elections and the Spanish Civil War—causes of particular interest to the members of this Communist club. The crowd is a diverse mix of races, genders, and professions, from workers to intellectuals, reflecting the artist’s vision of an ideal society. Like his teacher Robert Henri and other painters in the earlier Ashcan School tradition, Glintenkamp chose a coarse and expressive style for his scenes of working-class New York life. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.2248