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UNDERDOGS: WHATS BEHIND FOUR HUNGRY DOGS IMAGE?

Underdogs: Whats behind four hungry dogs image?
Diana Carolina Reyes
English for Academic Purpose 2 - Writing Workshop
Art Evaluation Assignment

Imagine this: 1930s Chicago, one of the major centers of activity in the United States,
strongly associated with mafia and gangsters, and profoundly affected because of the Great
Depression, where many workers lost their jobs. The companies generally powerful and big
factories concentrated a great power, and somehow, decided who could eat any given day. In
this scenario a painter is having great success in the United States, and is interested in translating
through a painting, facts of great importance for the time: The labor strikes in the U.S industry,
which began on 1937.
This oil on canvas painting was called Underdogs and despite being very difficult to
understand because of its abstract conception, the painting has a great relationship with the
environment of the author (discussed above), giving a message of poverty and despair, but
showing the struggle for survival that has characterized the human being.
Underdogs was painted by Joseph Vavak, who lived in Chicago since he was a little
child, with parents of Bohemian background, who influenced him to focus on the art world, and
studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Vavak has the tools to be a great artist;
Furthermore he was also a musician, and participated in bands and orchestras to support his
artistic interest. While he played with these groups, he met some free-thinking artist and writers
who influenced his thinking and therefore his way of painting. (Kelley, 2007)

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UNDERDOGS: WHATS BEHIND FOUR HUNGRY DOGS IMAGE?
Then, he joined the Navy during the World War I, and I think that through events of his
life like that one, we might understand how much the environment has affected the work of an
artist and probably we could try to guess the purpose of a painting, but also, we must consider
perceived physical and emotional aspects.
For example when I saw Underdogs, I thought it was a really good painting, although, I
didnt like the abstract style, that one seems to me very real, and made me want to know why this
artist painted such a sad thing, What he wanted to show us?
So, the picture in general is for me nostalgic and gloomy, is painted mostly in dark colors
like variations of black and grey, but also yellow, green, blue, and red; Has a defined depth with
three planes, in the background there is a sad landscape showing shadows, as a sort of
thunderstorm. Then the artist drew the middle-ground, where one can distinguish an abstract pile
of junk, which seems made with a thick, strong and precise line. And in the foreground are drawn
four dogs with different fur colors such as variations of yellow, grey, and black, showing
malnutrition, poorness, leanness and famine, but looking like they were struggling to survive,
united.
So, what is the purpose behind Vavaks painting of four moribund dogs? If again the
context is taken into consideration, my deduction is that Vavak wanted to express his feelings
about some facts that were happening on his environment, and that were affecting him directly or
indirectly. For the time when the painting was made 1938 He had begun to paint some some
satirical illustrations that appeared in the Daily Worker, a newspaper of the Communist Party
USA (Schulman, 2005), showing his special attentiveness toward the painting of social issues.
Vavak said referring to another painting of more or less the same date: Motivation must
come from outside of ones self. External conditions, economic and physical, have been so acute

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UNDERDOGS: WHATS BEHIND FOUR HUNGRY DOGS IMAGE?
during the past few years they have compelled even the average minded student to a personal
investigation. By interpreting a period which will become a poignant page in the history of
America, I hope to make some small contribution (Vavak, 1937)
Following his words, I would say that Vavak through Underdogs wanted to capture
abstractly some dramatic moments that were happening in the United States after the Great
Depression of 1929, when thousands of workers were kicked out of their jobs and they were
living a constant battle for the subsistence. And in my opinion he did it very well. Analyzing the
painting, I think he used a metaphor to show the preoccupant situation that people was living,
they were the underdogs, People that no one cares and no one thinks they can do something. But
they are showing that despite the circumstances they are alive, that they are struggling for
survive, that they wont give up.
After this work, Vavak continued painting, mainly about social topics with paintings like
Chicago or Give, both painted in 1940. And he exhibited his work nationally throughout the
1940s and continued painting until 1960. (Bauman, 2005)
Some time ago I read some nice words in a book about the work of an artist, it said
something like the function of an artist is to disturb the sleepers and shake the complacent pillars
of the world, and I think that Vavak did it very well through Underdogs, although it's definitely
not his most famous painting you cant even find an image on the internet It's a very shocking
painting that makes you want to know why this artist painted something like that, and that
through this essay I hope I have provided some clarity.

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UNDERDOGS: WHATS BEHIND FOUR HUNGRY DOGS IMAGE?
References
Bauman, B. (2005). Participating Institutions. . Retrieved from
http://www.baumanconservation.com/members17.html
Kelley, M. (2007). Biography of Joseph Vavak. . Retrieved from
http://www.askart.com/askart/v/joseph_vavak/joseph_vavak.aspx
Schulman, D. (2005). Modernism in the new city: Chicago artist 1920-1950. . Retrieved from
Joseph Vavak: http://www.chicagomodern.org/artists/joseph_vavak/
Vavak, J. (1937). papers. Pamphlet file, P-22163. Art Institute of Chicago: Ryerson Library.