Fifth+Year,+The

Date: 1934
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/1979/1979.119.1_1a.jpg?itok=YmD4Vkq3 width="394" height="346" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/the-fifth-year-9440"]] || Title: **The Fifth Year**

Artist: **John R. Grabach** Born: Newark, New Jersey 1886 Died: 1981

Medium: oil on wood Dimensions: 42 1/4 x 48 in. (107.4 x 121.9 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of the artist

Accession: 1979.119.1 || John R. Grabach painted this image five years after the great stock market crash of 1929. It shows an endless stream of people rising up out of New York and trudging across the sky. The man in front gazes out at the viewer from under his hat, while his partner weeps on his shoulder. Paintings such as this, emphasizing the desolate conditions experienced by many Americans, reflect the rise of Socialist and Communist activism during the 1930s. These figures represent the working masses, their gray faces and threadbare clothes highlighting the hardships of the Depression. Their journey through the sky symbolizes their long trek toward a better future.
 * Exhibition Label: **


 * Suggested Questions: **
 * Who do you think these people are? Where are they?
 * What does their body language tell you?
 * Why has the artist chosen to portray these people in this manner?

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