New Deal artwork

Last updated
Copper Miner (1936) by Raymond Phillips Sanderson, located at Cochise County Courthouse in Bisbee, Arizona WPA produced statue, "Miner" by Sanderson in Bisbee AZ, USA.jpeg
Copper Miner (1936) by Raymond Phillips Sanderson, located at Cochise County Courthouse in Bisbee, Arizona

New Deal artwork is an umbrella term used to describe the creative output organized and funded by the Roosevelt administration's New Deal response to the Great Depression. [2] This work produced between 1933 and 1942 [2] ranges in content and form from Dorothea Lange's photographs for the Farm Security Administration to the Coit Tower murals to the library-etiquette posters from the Federal Art Project to the architecture of the Solomon Courthouse in Nashville, Tennessee. The New Deal sought to "democratize the arts" and is credited with creating a "great body of distinguished work and fostering a national aesthetic." [3]

Contents

Background

While work of this era is sometimes called “WPA art” the architecture and the creative arts groups of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal One (Federal Art Project, Federal Writers Project, et al.) were only some of the New Deal agencies commissioning creative works. (Federal One’s budget at its height in 1935 was $27 million, representing 0.04% of GDP.) [3] The Treasury Department’s Public Works of Art Project, Section of Painting and Sculpture, and Treasury Relief Art Project, as well as the Civil Works Administration, the Public Works Administration, and the Civilian Conservation Corps [4] were also charged with creating New Deal art. Documentary photographs for the FSA as well as the Office of War Information and the Resettlement Administration are also considered New Deal art. [3] The Historic Sites Act of 1935 instigated a similar documentary record, including photographs and architectural plans, for the National Park Service properties. [5]

(Note: New Deal historiographic work is a separate, albeit overlapping, topic that includes “the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), the Index of American Design, the establishment of the National Archives, the historic restoration work of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the WPA’s Historical Records Survey, and the hundreds of WPA books and writings covering the histories of states, towns, folklore, art, African Americans, American Indians, Latinos, and more.”) [5]

Collectively, the artists of the New Deal produced a vast archive: Murals, including 1,100 post office murals (list), [6] free-standing and bas relief sculpture, an estimated 30,000 posters, [7] more than 700 books and pamphlets and radio scripts, [8] and architectural details for scores of public buildings, in a style now called WPA Moderne. [9]

The New Deal arts programs emphasized regionalism, social realism, class conflict, proletarian interpretations and audience participation. The unstoppable collective powers of common man, contrasted to the failure of individualism, was a favorite theme. [10] [11]

Both the Whitney Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art created gallery shows in 1936 showcasing works by Treasury and WPA artists, respectively, that had been commissioned through the federal programs. [12] The New York Times reported that the Whitney show “abounds in vitality” and was especially complementary about the sculpture, including William Zorach’s Benjamin Franklin and Heinz Warneke’s Bears. [13]

See also

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Works Progress Administration</span> U.S. government program of the 1930s and 1940s

The Works Progress Administration was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. It was set up on May 6, 1935, by presidential order, as a key part of the Second New Deal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Art Project</span> New Deal relief program to fund the visual arts

The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the largest of the New Deal art projects. It was created not as a cultural activity, but as a relief measure to employ artists and artisans to create murals, easel paintings, sculpture, graphic art, posters, photography, theatre scenic design, and arts and crafts. The WPA Federal Art Project established more than 100 community art centers throughout the country, researched and documented American design, commissioned a significant body of public art without restriction to content or subject matter, and sustained some 10,000 artists and craft workers during the Great Depression. According to American Heritage, “Something like 400,000 easel paintings, murals, prints, posters, and renderings were produced by WPA artists during the eight years of the project’s existence, virtually free of government pressure to control subject matter, interpretation, or style.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public Works of Art Project</span> American New Deal work-relief project (1933–1934)

The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was a New Deal work-relief program that employed professional artists to create sculptures, paintings, crafts and design for public buildings and parks during the Great Depression in the United States. The program operated from December 8, 1933, to May 20, 1934, administered by Edward Bruce under the United States Treasury Department, with funding from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stevan Dohanos</span> American artist and illustrator (1907–1994)

Stevan Dohanos was an American artist and illustrator of the social realism school, best known for his Saturday Evening Post covers, and responsible for several of the Don't Talk set of World War II propaganda posters. He named Grant Wood and Edward Hopper as the greatest influences on his painting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Sternberg</span> American painter

Harry Sternberg (1904–2001), was an American painter, printmaker and educator. He taught at the Art Students League of New York, from 1933 to c. 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seymour Fogel</span> American artist (1911–1984)

Seymour Fogel was an American artist whose artistic output included social realist art early in the century, abstract art and expressionist art at mid-century, and transcendental art late in the century. His drive to experiment led him to work with expected media – oil paints, watercolors, and acrylics – as well as unconventional media such as glass, plastics, sand, and wax.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Section of Painting and Sculpture</span> American New Deal work-relief project (1934–1943)

The Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture was a New Deal art project established on October 16, 1934, and administered by the Procurement Division of the United States Department of the Treasury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Deal and the arts in New Mexico</span>

The Wall Street crash of 1929 left many artists in the United States unemployed. Collectors who normally could afford to purchase such luxury items no longer had the means to do so. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal program created funding for art projects which would inspire confidence in American life and history. The program's objective was to hire artists to create works of art for display in public buildings throughout the country. From 1934 to 1943, there were various federally funded programs for artists in New Mexico – the Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture, the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), the Works Progress Administration (WPA)/Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP), and the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States post office murals</span> New Deal-era public art

United States post office murals are notable examples of New Deal art produced during the years 1934–1943.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucile Blanch</span> American artist (1895-1981)

Lucile Esma Lundquist Blanch was an American artist, art educator, and Guggenheim Fellow. She was noted for the murals she created for the U.S. Treasury Department's Section of Fine Arts during the Great Depression.

William Davenport Griffen was an American artist and muralist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Terrell</span> American painter (1908–1993)

Elizabeth E. Terrell was an American artist who completed works for the Works Progress Administration. Born in Toledo, Ohio, Terrell is known for her abstract and modern figures, still life paintings, and murals. She exhibited her art at the Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Whitney Museum of American Art. She did frescos, mixed media, mosaics, gouache and oil paintings. She produced a mural at the Starke, Florida Post Office titled "Reforestation" (1942). She was part of an exhibition with Rufino Tamayo and Julian Levi at the Ottumwa Art Center in Ottumwa, Iowa. Her work is in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Albert Harris</span> American painter

George Albert Harris, also known as George Harris (1913–1991), was an American painter, muralist, lithographer, and educator. He was a participant in the WPA Federal Art Project and was among the youngest artists on the mural project at Coit Tower. Harris' style is California Modernism, often working in abstraction, focusing primarily on still lifes and portraits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treasury Relief Art Project</span> American New Deal work-relief project (1935–1938)

The Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) was a New Deal arts program that commissioned visual artists to provide artistic decoration for existing Federal buildings during the Great Depression in the United States. A project of the United States Department of the Treasury, TRAP was administered by the Section of Painting and Sculpture and funded by the Works Progress Administration, which provided assistants employed through the Federal Art Project. The Treasury Relief Art Project also created murals and sculpture for Public Works Administration housing projects. TRAP was established July 21, 1935, and continued through June 30, 1938.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Deco in the United States</span> Architectural style popular in the 1920s-1930s

The Art Deco style, which originated in France just before World War I, had an important impact on architecture and design in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. The most notable examples are the skyscrapers of New York City, including the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center. It combined modern aesthetics, fine craftsmanship, and expensive materials, and became the symbol of luxury and modernity. While rarely used in residences, it was frequently used for office buildings, government buildings, train stations, movie theaters, diners and department stores. It also was frequently used in furniture, and in the design of automobiles, ocean liners, and everyday objects such as toasters and radio sets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyman J. Warsager</span> American artist

Hyman J. Warsager (1909–1974) was an American artist known for his printmaking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harold Lehman</span> American artist

Harold Lehman (1913–2006) was an American artist known for his murals for the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

References

  1. ↑ ""Copper Miner" Sculpture by R. Phillips Sanderson". University of Arizona Libraries, Special Collections. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  2. 1 2 Legal Title to Art Work Produced Under the 1930s and 1940s New Deal Administration. U.S. General Services Administration. 2005.
  3. 1 2 3 Musher, Sharon Ann (2015). Democratic art : the New Deal's influence on American culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN   978-0-226-24721-2. OCLC   907924703.
  4. ↑ Duxbury, Kathleen (2016-07-27). "The Lost Artworks of the Civilian Conservation Corps". Living New Deal. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  5. 1 2 "Historic Sites Act (1935)". Living New Deal. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  6. ↑ Marling, Karal Ann (1982). Wall-to-wall America : a cultural history of post-office murals in the Great Depression (3rd ed.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN   0-8166-1116-5. OCLC   8223038.
  7. ↑ Carter, Ennis (2008). Posters for the people : art of the WPA. Christopher DeNoon, Alexander M. Peltz. Philadelphia, PA: Quirk Books. ISBN   978-1-59474-292-7. OCLC   227919759.
  8. ↑ Writers' Program (U.S.) (1942). Catalogue, WPA Writers' Program publications, the American guide series, the American life series. September 1941. Washington: U. S. Govt. print. off.
  9. ↑ Maresca, Joseph (2016). WPA buildings : architecture and art of the new deal. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing. ISBN   978-0-7643-5211-9. OCLC   946462658.
  10. ↑ Mathews, Jane De Hart (1975). "Arts and the People: The New Deal Quest for a Cultural Democracy". Journal of American History. 62 (2): 316–339. doi:10.2307/1903257. JSTOR   1903257.
  11. ↑ Leuchtenburg, William E. (1995). The FDR Years: On Roosevelt and his Legacy. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 243.
  12. ↑ Richmond, Lauren (May 2014). Defining the American Vision: The Whitney Museum of American Art's Role in Changing the Landscape of American Art History (Honors thesis). Wellesley College.
  13. ↑ Jewell, Edward Alden (1936-10-06). "MURALS FEATURE TREASURY EXHIBIT; Works Designed for Public Buildings on View Today at Whitney Museum". The New York Times. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.