Shapes of fragility

The expression, the expressed, and the expressible in the artwork 'Sin pan y sin trabajo' by Ernesto de la Cárcova."

Abstract

The artwork "Sin pan y sin trabajo" by Ernesto de la Cárcova, produced in 1894, has been acclaimed as "the first painting of workers' protest in Buenos Aires." However, despite its recognition as a powerful social critique, little exploration has been conducted into the systematic alterations that mark the series of echoes, adaptations, and transpositions that account for its social circulation. This paper aims at reconstructing the social history of this artwork, analyzing its significant properties, its relationships with other discourses, and its development across various instances of acknowledgment, from initial reviews to reinterpretations, versions, and transpositions that emerged during the 2001-2002 crisis in Argentina. This approach will enable a better understanding of the piece a more fragile entity than the "sublime" object critics have portrayed it to be. Simultaneously, it will allow us to experience the limits of expressibility within the field of visual arts in the 19th century and the ever-unstable position of social critique within the cultural field.