Making Guns: The Great Hammer 1917

Editor: This is Sir George Clausen's "Making Guns: The Great Hammer" from the Tate Collections. It's a study in charcoal. The sheer scale of the machinery is what strikes me first. What can you tell me about it? Curator: Notice how Clausen foregrounds the means of production. The hammer, a tool of immense power, dominates the composition, dwarfing the human figures. It's less about the finished product, and more about the labor, the process, the sheer materiality of gun manufacture, don't you think? Editor: Yes, it's as if the drawing highlights the physical process rather than the outcome of gun creation. Curator: Exactly. Consider the social context. Clausen made this drawing during a time of increasing industrialization and militarization. He draws attention to the labor and the machine, both essential for, and victims of, progress. Editor: I see the focus on the tools of war, and the hands that make them, offers a critical perspective. Curator: Precisely. It invites us to question the relationship between human labor, technology, and the social consequences of their joint output.