In 1912, the young artist Hugo Robus attended the exhibition of the Italian Futurists at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris. The brash group of Futurist painters drafted a manifesto in 1909 decrying history and announcing a rebellious path forward, unifying musical, technological, and other influences in brilliantly hued images and ideas regarding the future. The early exhibitions of the Futurists served as a clarion call to a new generation of artists determined to break new ground and embrace the mechanical future of their generation.

The Winch is one of Robus’ most significant paintings, from a series of perhaps a dozen canvases created between 1915 and 1917 when Robus returned from Europe and settled in New York. Other examples from the series are in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Wichita Art Museum, and the Phoenix Art Museum.