Artistry and activism: Stonecutters have made their mark in communities, workplaces

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4283

By Randy Croce
16 December 2009

MINNEAPOLIS - The elegant statue of a woman, holding a lily – symbol of rebirth – in one hand and gesturing with delicate flower petals in the other, stands in St. Paul’s Calvary Cemetery.

The monument, just south of the corner of Front Avenue and Colne Street, marks the graves of the Drechsler family. A flowing gown, with suggestions of needlepoint at the shoulders, drapes the 12-foot-high figure. The fine details are rendered in solid granite that was quarried near Barre, Vermont, and carved by Italian immigrant stonecutter Giuseppe Omatti. Looking at the serene figure, it might surprise viewers that the carver belonged to one of the most militant American unions.

Stonecutters include artisans employing a variety of skills, from shaping building construction blocks to carving statues of people. I have been studying these workers over the last eight years in producing If Stone Could Speak, a documentary about the scalpellini (stonecutters) who migrated from northern Italy to Barre, Vermont. I was drawn to document these particular artisans, not only by their extraordinary artistic and technical skills, but because they were assertive and effective labor activists. As I learned more about stonecutters around the country and the world, I discovered an international progressive heritage that extends back for centuries.



Since Roman times, the stonecutters and quarrymen of Carrara, Italy, northwest of Florence, resisted outside government control and later industrial control. Many are still committed anarchists. Townspeople still place red flower wreaths on monuments and plaques honoring free thinkers and radicals of the past. The stonecutters of the west coast Bohus region of Sweden were fervent socialists whose lives revolved around their labor hall.

I had long wondered why stonecutters were such independent workers. François Icher provides a convincing explanation in his book, Building the Great Cathedrals. During Europe’s Middle Ages, stonecutters traveled long distances from job to job. Once their work on a cathedral or other structure was finished, stonecutters moved wherever opportunities in their specialized work were available.

FULL story and video at link.