Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami

Builders of Babylon

Artist/Maker Samuel L. Margolies (United States, 1897-1974)

Date1949

Mediumsoft-ground etching and aquatint

DimensionsSight: 14 1/4 x 11 in. (36.2 x 27.9 cm)
Sheet: 17 x 13 1/2 in. (43.2 x 34.3 cm)

ClassificationsVisual Works

Credit LineGift of Dr. Philip Samet

Terms

Object number66.128.015

DescriptionThe title of this work metaphorically compares New York to Babylon, the ancient world's exemplary urban center of labor-driven progress and human achievement. In this composition (one of several variations Margolies executed on this theme), rendered in the realist style of the 1930s, muscular workers balance on a steel girder, dwarfing Manhattan's famous skyscrapers -- including the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building -- below. As yet another towering symbol of progress is constructed, we are reminded that, despite periods of financial calamity, the decades before World War II were years of great architectural expansion in mid-town Manhattan. The imagery also reflects the link between the era's populism and a resurgence of nationalism. Margolies' preferred medium was etching because of the technical challenge it offered, and because etchings were conducive to duplication, and therefore more affordable to the general public.

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