(Workers in a field)

Adja Yunkers

This expressive ink wash drawing by Adja Yunkers was done right around 1948 when he moved to the US. It depicts farm workers in the fields, done using modulating blacks and grays to accomplish the feeling of great depth and distance. It is signed in ink in the upper left sky.

In 1934 Yunkers immigrated to Sweden, where his reputation as a political artist and printmaker preceded him, and he was received with much enthusiasm. He remained in Sweden, while focusing primarily on printmaking, for the next 16 years. While living in Sweden he began to exhibit widely, quickly becoming recognized for his graphic work. His extensive collaborative work for various art publications kept him at the forefront of the European art world, and, despite a 1947 Stockholm studio fire that destroyed nearly ten years of work, he was able to continue to show that year. The summer of 1947 he moved to New York and began teaching at the New School for Social Research.