The art piece I chose to do my blog post on is called Ore to Iron. The piece was developed in 1953 by the artist Charles Sheeler after his visit to a steel plant in Pittsburgh. The artist and photographer mainly focused on technology and the impact that comes with it. Most of his work was actually sponsored and based on factories from Ford Motors Co. and so most of the paintings highlight the industry under a positive light. As previously stated, since the painting is based on a steel plant Sheeler had seen, it is a mimesis, but Sheeler through the painting showed much more than a basic representation of a factory, rather showed the benefits and harms of industrialization. I believe the painting Ore to Iron to be a work of conceptual art because it shows the beauty and dismay that comes with industrialization and technological advancements. Furthermore, the artist had shown the beauty of technology through intriguing color schemes and overlapping patterns. Adding on, based on colors and shading, there are multiple loops and swirls of factory stairs and buildings. There is also one overall big swirl and factory staircase, which can be seen through the light blue colors. What the artist wanted to show through all these connected buildings and the overlapping colors is how interconnected the factory system has made society. When he had worked for Ford Motors Co. he loved to show how the car industry had made the world easier to travel and how it made the world a smaller place. I think the color scheme and the coinciding stairs were a great way to show the ever more intertwined world because the painting does make it seem like there are a few worlds colliding in it. In the painting, you cannot tell where one staircase begins and another one ends. Also what I found very interesting is that in almost all of Charles Sheeler’s work, there are no people. There is not much information about why he did not draw people, so I left it up to my interpretation as to figure out this artistic choice. Most likely he wanted to separate industry from people and technology from humankind. Also by not showing people, I believe the artist somehow highlighted the negative aspects of the factory system.  I interpreted the stylistic choice as him maybe showing that the factory system can be devoid of human emotions and lack the human intricacy that can go into making a hand made product. Also I believe it to show how the factory system and assembly line focuses on automation and speed rather than care and individualism that used to go into merchandise.

 

 

Furthermore, I do believe this art piece to be political and have a political statement. Since Charles Sheeler mainly worked for a big factory company, he focused on the good that comes with industrialization. This good that comes with industrialization can also be seen from the top of the staircases. In the painting, the stairs go up to the top of the painting and from the right-hand corner they look like they continue to go past the edge of the painting. Sheeler said his influences for making the stairs so high were the high rise buildings of New York and the new heights technology could take us. Obviously, Sheeler wanted to show the benefits of the factory system, since he was hired by a company which was built on making factories, and the political statement of the work was clearly the new heights factories and technology would take us. 

The conceptual and political messages are very clearly similar in that they show the impact industrialization has on the world, but what I found so interesting is how relevant it is to our society today. I think the aspect of the painting which has the most profound impact on the viewer is that even though the art piece was created in 1953 it is surprisingly pertinent to our time. The world like in the painting has become more interconnected and as the painting accidentally predicted the industrial world has become more automated and involves less human interaction. The painting although it does represent a factory that Sheeler had seen, it could easily be one of today’s with their huge labyrinth of staircases and complicated designs. Also, the artist was right about technology reaching new heights because well, it really has and reached points that were never thought to be possible. Additionally, on the assignment itself, I know the blog post should have been 400-500 words, but I was really struggling to shorten it down since there is a lot of useful information and I thought a lot of it was necessary for truly understanding the logic behind the work. Also, it is the last blog post so it should be an extensive blog post.