From Out of the South

For Robert Gwathmey, art was not an end in itself but a vehicle for social change. Gwathmey grew up in Richmond, Virginia, where he witnessed the plight of blacks in the American South during the Jim Crow laws that constrained, disenfranchised and segregated blacks from whites in practically every aspect of public life. Gwathmey, who was white, spent most of his adult life living in Pennsylvania and New York. Nonetheless, the strife of black people in the South served as the focus for most of his paintings.
In this example, Gwathmey painted a series of symbolic scenes that unfold simultaneously in a barren landscape. The colors are saturated, but grim and claustrophobic. There is little interaction among the figures, even though they occupy a shared environment. Inequality and misery are vividly depicted.