TitleThe Rescue
Artist
Lou Barlow
(American, 1908 - 2011)
Date1991
MediumLinocut with hand-coloring on cream wove paper
DimensionsSheet size: 16 1/8 × 22 15/16 in.
Image size: 12 15/16 × 19 7/16 in.
Mat size: 22 × 30 in.
SignedSigned lower right in graphite: "Lou Barlow".
SubmissionANA diploma presentation, September 16, 1992
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number1992.52
Label TextBorn in 1908, Lou Barlow studied at the National Academy of Design and in Europe. In the 1930s Barlow worked for the Public Works of Art Project and the Federal Art Project divisions of the W.P.A. During World War II, he became a war artist for the United States Army serving in Africa and Italy. Barlow has been an incredibly prolific printmaker over his long career and taught at the Parsons School of Design, New York, until 1998. The artist's prints may be found in numerous public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New-York Historical Society, the Boston Public Library, The British Museum, the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, among many others."The Rescue" is based on an experience the artist had in the summer of 1991 when he saved two people from drowning in the ocean off Hampton Bays, Long Island. The event had such a dramatic emotional impact on Barlow that he felt compelled to record it visually in an effort to relieve his residual anxiety. He initially created a painting based on the rescue, which became the inspiration for the linocut print he created soon thereafter. The figures are placed at the center of the composition surrounded by swirling and churning water, only heightening the dramatic effect of the moment.
