Thursday, May 22, 2014

Constantin Alajálov: Employment Prospects for the Graduate

The uncertain job outlook for the college graduate could be anxiety-provoking in any era, but it was particularly so during the Great Depression. Constantin Alajálov's 1935 New Yorker cover evokes the new graduate's exaggerated hopes for brilliant success on the one hand versus the fear of fruitless low-wage toil on the other. Alajálov manages to mine humor from every scenario. Each of the young man's prospects features some sort of work, which means the most feared and least humorous outcome--unemployment--doesn't really come into play here.

Constantin Alajálov, The New Yorker, May 22, 1935


Note:  Careful readers may have noticed that I've gone overboard a bit with posts about the art of Constantin Alajálov recently. Careless readers may have noticed as well.

On Tuesday I learned that I won my first cartoon caption contest in Moment magazine. I plan to keep mentioning it.

01157

No comments:

Post a Comment