New Deal Art

During the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s and into the early years of World War II, the Federal government supported the arts in

unprecedented ways. For 11 years, between 1933 and 1943, federal tax dollars employed

artists, musicians, actors, writers, photographers, and dancers. Never before or

since has our government so extensively sponsored the arts.Source:

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/new_deal_for_the_arts/index.html

Why did the government support the Arts?

• Arts projects provided work for jobless artists.

• A larger mission: to promote American art and culture and to give more Americans access to what President Franklin Roosevelt described as "an abundant life."

• The projects saved thousands of artists from poverty enabled Americans to see an original painting for the first time, attend their first professional live theater, or take their first music or drawing class.

• Controversy and WWII ended government support for the Arts.

What were common themes?

• New Deal art displays important cultural and historical themes that give us a window into a period of great change and controversy in America.

• Rediscovering America• Celebrating “the People”• Work Pays America• Activist Arts• Useful Arts

Rediscovering America

History of Southern Illinois By Paul Kelpe, Illinois Federal Art Project, WPA, ca. 1935-39 Gouache

Fishermen's VillageBy Edmund Lewandowski, Wisconsin Federal Art Project, WPA, 1937

Watercolor and gouache over pencil

"Church in shacktown community. It is used by different sects, including Pentecostal. The curtains are made of flour sacks. . . . Near Modesto, Stanislaus County,

California, May 10, 1940"By Dorothea Lange, Bureau of Agricultural Economics

Jane Addams Memorial

By Mitchell Siporin, Illinois Federal Art Project, WPA, 1936Tempera on paper

Celebrating “the People”

Michigan artist Alfred Castagne sketching WPA construction workersBy an unknown photographer, May 19, 1939

The RiveterBy Ben Shahn, Treasury Section of

Fine Arts, 1938Tempera on paperboard

Waiting for the Mail

By Grant Wright Christian, Treasury Relief Art Project, 1937 38Oil on canvas

In the DugoutBy Paul Clemens, Wisconsin Federal Art Project, WPA, 1938

Oil on masonite

Work Pays America

Painting depicting the activities of the National Youth AdministrationBy Alden Krider, Kansas National Youth Administration, 1936, Oil on canvas

Years of DustBy Ben Shahn, Resettlement

Administration, 1937, Photolithograph

"C.C.C. A Young Man's Opportunity for Work Play Study & Health"

By Albert Bender, Chicago Federal Art Project, WPA, ca. 1935Silkscreen

ElectrificationBy David Stone Martin, Treasury Section of Fine Arts, 1940

Tempera on cardboard

Activist Arts

Lest We ForgetBy Ben Shahn, Resettlement Administration, 1937Gouache and watercolor in bound volume

"Children in a democracy. A migratory family living in a trailer in an open field. No sanitation, no water. They come from Amarillo, Texas."By Dorothea Lange, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, November 1940

From the "One-Third of a Nation" series, New York CityBy Arnold Eagle and David Robbins,New York City Federal Art Project, May to August 1938

Mine RescueBy Fletcher Martin, Treasury Section of Fine Arts, 1939Tempera on panel