Brilliant reds, blues, and greens illuminate this ordinary New York barbershop. Ilya Bolotowsky, who made this painting for the Public Works of Art Project, expressed the challenge “to show a typical average drab barbershop and at the same time get a decorative effect through color."

A Russian immigrant himself, Bolotowsky enticed fellow immigrants to pose for him, including all four people pictured here, carefully selected by the artist. For him, people from around the world gathered in a New York barbershop embodied the American scene.

*****

Many of the paintings in “Experience America” were created in 1934 for a pilot program designed to put artists to work; others were produced under the auspices of the WPA, which followed. The thousands of paintings, sculptures, and murals placed in schools, post offices, and other public buildings stand as a testimony to the resilience of Americans during one of the most difficult periods of our history.

Best to view in "Original" because other versions resized by Pbase are decidedly unsharp.

View of the Archives, posted earlier



I have to assume Sahraa was aware I was photographing her, but I caught her before she was able to turn her head away like she usually does.