"RING SERVICE: Progressive Era Prize Fighters" is a series of oil paintings and the most recent addition to Will Holub's on-going JOBS project. Based on a collection century-old postcards, the paintings depict successful prize fighters who were doing ring service during America's Progressive Era (1890 to 1920), a period of great political, economic and social upheaval. Given the similarity to our own time, the paintings of the fighters pose the question: aren't most Americans doing their own ring service right now?
The JOBS project began in 2008 and now includes three series of oil paintings that depict unique groups of Americans whose occupations demanded true grit and determination. Using vintage reference material, Holub first painted a series of nine WWII Army Air Force navigators, one of which received a Cambridge Art Association Best-In-Show Award from Jen Mergel, Curator of the Museum of Fine Arts/Boston. In 2010, he painted a series of eight actresses from the Hollywood Studio era, which was selected the following year for inclusion in the Feminist Art Base at the Brooklyn Museum, its historic online archive of Feminist art from the 1960s to the present.
From top to bottom:
WILL HOLUB. 2011. Frank Klaus. Oil on Cradled Wood Panel. 10 x 8 in.
WILL HOLUB. 2011. Mike Dundee. Oil on Cradled Wood Panel. 10 x 8 in.
WILL HOLUB. 2011. Frankie Schmalzet. Oil on Cradled Wood Panel. 10 x 8 in.
WILL HOLUB. 2012. Leach Cross. Oil on Cradled Wood Panel. 10 x 8 in.
WILL HOLUB. 2011. 'Cannonball' Eddie Martin. Oil on Cradled Wood Panel. 10 x 8 in.
WILL HOLUB. 2011. Jack McVey. Oil on Cradled Wood Panel. 10 x 8 in.
WILL HOLUB. 2010. Fred Fulton. Oil on Cradled Wood Panel. 10 x 8 in.
WILL HOLUB. 2010. 'Giant Killer' Jack Dillon. Oil on Cradled Wood Panel. 10 x 8 in.
© Will Holub 2012
