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Social Sharing
Guttersnipe
Claude Clark embraced his African heritage as a source of cultural pride and artistic inspiration. The facial features in this painting were inspired in part by Baule masks from the African country of Ivory Coast, which he viewed and photographed at the University of Pennsylvania museum. However, his subject is an American “guttersnipe,” a slang term for a poor person who grows up in the streets and smokes discarded “snipes,” or cigarette butts. Guttersnipe, which would have challenged middle-class sensibilities, reflects Clark’s socialist politics and working-class sympathies.
By 1942, when much of America had been lifted out of the Great Depression by the economic boom generated by World War II, many Black Americans continued to suffer economic hardships that were compounded by racism and discrimination. Fusing African art with his interpretation of the contemporary Black American experience, Guttersnipe reveals the discrepancies between America’s ideals of opportunity for all and the realities for working-class Black people.
- Artist
- Claude Clark
- Title
- Guttersnipe
- Date
- 1942
- Object Type
- Painting
- Medium
- Oil on wood panel
- Dimensions
- 19 5/8 x 16 1/4 in. (49.8 x 41.3 cm)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase, American Art Trust Fund
- Accession Number
- 2000.21a-b