Sydney graving dock

Place Oceania: Australia, New South Wales, Sydney
Accession Number ART30253
Collection type Art
Measurement Framed: 75.8 x 103.6 x 3.8 cm; Unframed: 59.8 x 87.6 cm
Object type Painting
Physical description gouache, pen and ink, pencil on cardboard
Maker McClintock, Herbert
Place made Australia: New South Wales, Sydney
Date made 1943
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

In this work the focus is placed on the immensity of the structure being built. The scale of the enterprise is emphasised by the towering walls, gantry cranes and a section of pipe being hoisted high above the workers. Herbert McClintock places the viewer in the centre of the building site, with the detail of the far end of the dock lost in the distance, implying that this massive place extends beyond the picture surface. Although there are hundreds of people at work, except for the foreground figures, they are suggested rather than explicitly depicted. McClintock's brand of social realism is one that celebrates the heroism of labour, and the vital harmony needed between workers to successfully complete their sometimes daunting tasks.