A Summary Of Leon Koury's Compress Workers

Leon Koury’s sculpture titled Compress Worker was made in 1941 and is currently located in Memphis Brooks Museum of art. The Compress Worker is a sculpture of a cotton compress worker, that capture a strong physicality of labors who worked in cotton production. The sculpture is a topless African American man, who is ungroomed, barely clothed, and without a haircut to show that his job does not allow him keep a manicured appearance. The artist gives the man a look of exhaustion and strength at the same time. Exhaustion by having the figure’s gloved hands on his hips and having his head slightly down. Strength by giving the figure an athletic and mildly muscular fame. The look Koury created indicates that he is a hard worker and because of the