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Day's Work, 1976
Ink and crayon on Pellon
71 5⁄8 in x 23 1⁄2 in
Private Collection
Curator’s comments
Robinson fused a contemporary work-related theme with the words of spirituals in Day's Work. It is a vertical piece that shows rows and rows of women on a bus going to work, perhaps to do housework in white people's homes. The image is accompanied by a spiritual. One way to interpret this work is to acknowledge that African Americans, especially women-since all the people on the bus seem to be women-still do back breaking labor, and/or that work is something sacred and should be valued as such. Whatever the interpretation, it is clear that Robinson was thinking about the issue of working people in the African-American community.