Home/Symbols/Dark horizontal band (ground/street)Dark horizontal band (ground/street) SymbolismMaterial ground and social weight; the world that absorbs and anchors laboring bodies.Common ThemesThe modern lens: urban life & speedMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Everyday life as art (readymade, the ordinary)Gender & sexualityClass & inequalityLabor & workArtworks Featuring This SymbolLaundresses Carrying Linen in TownCamille Pissarro (1879)In Laundresses Carrying Linen in Town, two working women strain under <strong>white bundles</strong> that flare against a <strong>flat yellow ground</strong> and a <strong>dark brown band</strong>. The abrupt cropping and opposing diagonals turn anonymous labor into a <strong>monumental, modern frieze</strong> of effort and motion.
