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Anti-Poverty

Supper

by Joseph Hirsch

At the same time that President Lyndon B. Johnson declared his War on Poverty, Hirsch was painting Supper, his own condemnation of the nation’s inability to care for its elderly poor. 

Twelve men in tattered clothing eat together around a formal table, a probable allusion to the Last Supper.  Their contentedness at having a hot meal and company to share it with is evident, and serves as the basis for Hirsch’s dismay. 

If such a seemingly small act can so greatly improve lives, Hirsch implies, why does it remain elusive except around the holidays? 

(Pohl 93)

Learn more about this artist:

Artist Biography

Lesson Plans

Joseph Hirsch, Supper

Joseph Hirsch, Supper, 1963/65.  Oil on canvas, 66 x 85 in.

Museum Purchase, Derby Fund, from the Philip J. and Suzanne Schiller Collection of American Social Commentary Art 1930-1970

Within Anti-Poverty...
Joseph Hirsch Walter Quirt

Rural Poverty Urban Poverty Anti-Poverty Efforts Fall Short Labor Disputes
Ida Abelman
Thomas Hart Benton
Lucienne Bloch
Harry Brodsky
Paul Cadmus
Francis Chapin
Jack Delano
Phillip Evergood
George Gilbert
Hugo Gellert
Joseph Hirsch
Irwan Hoffman
Morris Huberland
Meritt Mauzey
Elizabeth Olds
Walter Quirt
Moses Soyer
Raphael Soyer
Lynd Ward


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