painting – 1930s

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Painting – 1930s Federal Programs for the Arts Funding of art in post offices, schools and court houses Artists – tend to lean left, support working class • John Reed Clubs • Artists’ Union (1934) Art Front – Artists’ Union journal (1934-1937) – Some see cause as class struggle against capitalism – Some push for unions, not socialism – Most want federal art programs

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Painting – 1930s. Federal Programs for the Arts Funding of art in post offices, schools and court houses Artists – tend to lean left, support working class John Reed Clubs Artists’ Union (1934) Art Front – Artists’ Union journal (1934-1937) - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Page 1: Painting – 1930s

Painting – 1930s• Federal Programs for the Arts

– Funding of art in post offices, schools and court houses– Artists – tend to lean left, support working class

• John Reed Clubs• Artists’ Union (1934)

– Art Front – Artists’ Union journal (1934-1937)– Some see cause as class struggle against capitalism– Some push for unions, not socialism– Most want federal art programs

Page 2: Painting – 1930s

– Public Works of Art Project (PWAP - 1933) – Treasury Dept.– Replaced by Section of Painting and Sculpture in the Treasury

Dept. (1934)– Joins (1935) with Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) and the

Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (FAP/WPA) is created

– As of 1935 - FAP/WPA– FAP/WPA – from 1935-1943, employs 1000s of artists – painters,

sculptors• Holger Cahill, director• Influenced by John Dewey• Art for all Americans, art “distinctly American”• Artists received weekly wage (3-5,000 employed)• Preference for representational, narrative art

Page 3: Painting – 1930s

• Treasury Section - 1935 (not a relief organization – TRAP is)– Edward Bruce, director– Artists compete for work in federal buildings– Work approved ahead of time and monitored– Funds most murals, though FAP/WPA funds some

• Spent $2.5 million, created 1,100 murals, 300 sculptures– Face greater restrictions

• Given themes – local history, local industries, local flora and fauna, local pursuits, hunting and fishing, recreational activities

• Nudity and poverty prohibited, slavery largely excluded• Native Americans often depicted• Realism not stipulated, but expected• Regionalism/Social Realism

Page 4: Painting – 1930s

• Farm Security Administration - 1935 (FSA) (first called Resettlement Administration)– Photographers - Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, etc.

• Mexican Muralists– Jose Orozco, David Siqueiros, and Diego Rivera– Many murals throughout US address concerns of many US

intellectuals and artists in early 30s

Page 5: Painting – 1930s

Rivera, Detroit Industry (South – 1932-1933)

Page 6: Painting – 1930s

• Regionalism/Social Realism• Philip Evergood (1901-1973)

– President of Artists’ Union, works in FAP– Powerful depictions of struggles between workers and

industrialists

Page 7: Painting – 1930s

Evergood, American Tragedy (1937)

Page 8: Painting – 1930s

• Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) – Thomas Hart Benton PBS Documentary

Page 9: Painting – 1930s

Benton, Parks, the Circus, the Klan, the Press (1933)

Page 10: Painting – 1930s

Benton, The Social History of the State of Missouri (1936)

Page 11: Painting – 1930s

John Steuart Curry (1897-1946)

• Tragic Prelude (1940)

Page 12: Painting – 1930s

Curry, Tragic Prelude (1940)