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Labor Art in the Puget Sound

Bellevue

BRACERO,THE ASPARAGUS PICKER

Artist: Nancy Lewis
Date: 1997
Medium: Bronze sculpture
Location: Meydenbauer Center, 3rd floor

Everett

EVERETT MASSACRE Commemorates the Everett Massacre of November 1916

Artist: Jack Gunter
Date: circa 1996
Medium: oil on wood panel
Location: Everett Labor Temple, 2818 Lombard

HITTING THE BRICKS Commemorates the 1995 Boeing Strike.

Artist: Ken Lonn
Medium: welded metal sculptures; approximately life-size
Date: circa 1997
Location: International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, District 751, Everett Union Hall, 8729 Airport Road

Renton

COAL MINERS

Artist: Jacob Elshin
Date: 1938
Medium: Oil on canvas
Location: Highlands Library, 2902 NE 12th Street

UNTITLED (Mural dedicated to fire fighters)

Artist: Harold Balazs
Date: 1979
Medium: Enameled metal
Location: Fire Station 11, 211 Mill Avenue South

UNTITLED (Sculpture symbolizing firemen)

Artist: Hai Ying Wu
Date: 1998
Medium: cast bronze and granite
Location: Fire Station 14, 1900 Lind Avenue SW

Seattle

Bloody Thursday  This sculpture was created by Elias (Dutch) Schultz, a Seattle longshoreman, Spanish Civil War veteran and social activist. It depicts longshoremen grieving over a member killed during the 1934 west coast maritime strike. BLOODY THURSDAY (Commemorates the 1934 International Longshoremen’s strike.)

Artist: Elias (Dutch) Schultz
Medium: Wood sculpture
Date: 1985
Location: Port of Seattle, Pier 69

THE CONSTRUCTION WORKERS*

Artist: Richard Beyer
Medium: Cast aluminum sculpture; approximately life-size
Date: 1982
Location: 425 Pontius Avenue North at Republican Street

FIREFIGHTERS*

Artist: Tom Askman
Medium: Aluminum silhouettes
Date: 1988
Location: Fire Station 17, 1050 NE 50th St.

FIRE FIGHTERS’ MEMORIAL

Artist: Hai Ying Wu
Date: 1998
Medium: Cast bronze; approximately life-size
Location: Occidental Square

HAMMERING MAN*

Artist: Jonathan Borofsky
Medium: steel; H 48 ft.
Date: 1992
Location: Seattle Art Museum, First Avenue at University Street

LOGGING MURAL and LOGGING IN THE MOUNTAINS*

Artist: Eustace Ziegler
Medium: Oil on canvas, H 8 ft. 9 in. x W 6 ft. 6 in.
Date: 1948
Location: Seattle Post Intelligencer Building, 101 Elliott Avenue West

MEN WHO WORK THE SHIPS (five mural panels)

Artist: Kenneth Callahan
Date: 1932-1935
Medium: Oil on canvas, mural panels
Location: Museum of History and Industry

ROSIE THE RIVETER

Artist: Ken Lonn
Medium: Metal sculpture
Date: circa 1990
Location: International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, District 751, Seattle Union Hall, 9125 15th Place South

Seattle Fishermen's Memorial  Photographs of courtesy of Marjan Petty.SEATTLE FISHERMEN’S MEMORIAL* (Honors local commerical fishermen and women who have lost their lives at sea.)

Artist: Ronald Petty
Date: 1988
Medium: Cast bronze and cast stone; H 30 ft.
Location: Seattle Fishermen’s Terminal

 

 

 

 

 

Shipscalers Mural  This mural was commissioned by the Shipscalers, Drydock and Miscellaneous Boatyard Workers Union, Local 541, for the Union Hall in Seattle in 1945. When their building was razed in 1955, the fresco was transferred to the University of Washington and put into storage. In 1975, at the suggestion of MECHA and El Centro de la Raza, the mural was restored, then reinstated in Kane Hall, University of Washington in 1977. Abraham Lincoln is portrayed with a banner which reads, SHIPSCALERS MURAL (depicts workers of the world)*

Artist: Pablo O’Higgins
Medium: Fresco mural, H 7 ft. x L 60 ft
Date: 1945
Location: University of Washington, Kane Hall, second floor

UNTITLED (Mural depicts a group of workers discussing labor issues.)

Medium: Fresco on masonry
Location: Seattle Labor Temple Association Building, 2800 1st Avenue.

Tacoma

Group of paintings portraying labor themes during the Depression years.

Artist: Ronald Ginther
Medium: Watercolor or tempera on paper
Date: 1930’s
Location: Washington State Historical Museum, 1911 Pacific Avenue

* Information gathered from James Rupp’s Art in Seattle’s Public Places, an Illustrated Guide. University of Washington Press, 1992.