San Francisco '34 Waterfront Strike 1949

Anton Refregier made this screenprint, *San Francisco '34 Waterfront Strike*, and you can really see the layering and planning that went into it. He’s not trying to hide the process, but rather to reveal the separate stages of construction. It's like he's saying, "Look, this is how you build an image, layer by layer.” The texture is smooth, almost flat, which makes sense for a print, but the way he overlaps shapes and colors creates depth. There's this tension between flatness and dimension, a push and pull that keeps your eye moving. Notice the way the red brick wall collides with the dark suited man on the left. Then look at the hands pointing toward him, begging, pleading, as if to say "don't do this to us!". Refregier reminds me of Jacob Lawrence, in the way he uses color and form to tell a story. Both artists knew how to turn simple shapes into powerful statements about struggle, resilience, and the human spirit. With Refregier and Lawrence, it's about the ongoing conversation of art, where each artist builds upon what came before, adding their own voice to the mix.