Untitled (Man with Melon)

A native of Virginia, Robert Gwathmey was educated in the North and spent most of his teaching career there. After a trip home he commented, “I was shocked by the poverty… I was shocked at the red clay, at the redness of the clay.” Gwathmey’s paintings of poverty and prejudice, and the implied critique of the economic and political structures that had failed people, provoked the ire of the FBI which kept a close eye on Gwathmey for any Communist sympathies.

In Man with a Melon, Gwathmey used posture, bare feet, bony limbs, and a spare background to express the difficulties experienced by sharecroppers. The dark outlines and earth tones emphasize this oppressive feeling.