Oscar Weissbuch, born New York City - L.I. Landscape - unknown - T-Shirt

A black-and-white linocut of a Long Island farmstead, with a barn set high on a slope and cultivated rows running down toward the viewer.

Visual Elements & Composition

Black dominates the print, cut into off-white paper in bold, carved strokes. A large tree anchors the left foreground, while rectangular fields recede in perspective toward a gabled barn roof on the hillside. Rows of crops fill the furrows, rendered as dense cabbage or lettuce heads. The lettering is part of the composition: "OW" and "WEISSBUCH" sit at the margins, alongside "FEDERAL ART PROJECT," "WPA N.Y.C.," and "L.I. Landscape."

Meaning & Symbolism

The image records working countryside as it stood in the 1930s. Farm buildings, cultivated land, and the open horizon speak to a regional identity rooted in the soil, and the stillness of the scene gives it a contemplative mood. Made under the Federal Art Project, the print belongs to the WPA-era effort to document American places and everyday labor through accessible printmaking. Oscar Weissbuch, born in New York City, made the original, which is held in the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection.

Carried on the Tee

A linocut is built from contrast, so the design reads best at chest height, where the strong black shapes and open paper areas can be taken in at a glance. The tree and barn roof sit where the eye naturally settles, and the lettering runs along the edges like a printer's mark. Wearing it puts a piece of Long Island's rural past into everyday motion.