On October 24, 1929, the stock market crashed, and the beginning of the Great Depression started. The market crash affected all of America, unemployment and homelessness, and caused a drastic decrease in the American standard of living. It was a period of enormous transition and change.

Artist: Grant Wood

Date: 1930

Medium: Oil on Beaver Board

Location: Private Collection

When American Gothic was exhibited at the Art Institute in 1930, the painting became an instant sensation with its ambiguity prompting viewers to speculate about the figures and their story. Many understood the work to be a satirical comment on midwesterners out of step with a modernizing world. Yet Wood intended it to convey a positive image of rural American values, offering a vision of reassurance at the beginning of the Great Depression (“American Gothic”)

In 1933 America Elected a new president, Franklin Delano Rosevelt, who promised to fix the economy. Roosevelt quickly established The New Deal and formalized it as the WPA (the federal WorksProgress Administration). This new umbrella agency created programs to help during the great depression one of the many programs created was the Federal Art Project (FAP). (Bryson et al.)

Federal Art Project

FAP

The FAP was the visual arts arm of the WPA. The FAP was to provide employment for struggling artists. These artist created murals, paintings, sculptures, graphic art, posters, photography, music, theater, and movies.

The WPA Federal Art Project established more than 100 community art centers throughout the country, They commissioned around 10,00 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.” (“When Uncle Sam Played Patron Of The Arts: Memoirs Of A Wpa Painter”)

Many famous artist of the day survived because of the FAP. The Great Depression changed their lives and as a result that has changed art and our lives today. I have chosen three artist from the Great Depression that worked for the FAP and whose art has influenced the world

Jackson Pollock

Before he became famous for his Abstract Expressionist work, Jackson Pollock was a starving artist in the great depression who found himself employed by the FAP. Without the freedom and income he had to experiment would Polluck have been discovered.

Lee Krasner never forgot the personal and professional advantages she and Pollock received on the WPA, and was mindful of the lack of such opportunities in the contemporary art world. In planning her legacy, she envisioned a charitable organization that would serve a similar function: to relieve the financial burden on recognized professional artists so they can practice and advance their work. Her prudent management of Pollock’s estate, as well as her own successful career, provided the initial funding to make that vision a reality.

-Helen Harrison, Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Director, Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, East Hampton, NY (“About – Pollock-Krasner Foundation”)

This is the only mosaic by Jackson Pollock and it was rejected by the FAP. (Barcio)

Untitled

Artist: Jackson Pollock

Date: 1938-41

Medium: Glass Mosaic in Cement on Wooden Support

Location: Washburn Gallery, New York

Dorothea Lange

"A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera."

Lange was hired by the FAP documenting the Great Depression. Her photographs include such captivating details of the struggles of displaced farmers, migrant laborers, sharecroppers and others at the bottom of the American farm economy as it reeled through the 1930s (Godoy)

I love her photographs, not only can you see without a camera you can feel.

Artist: Dorothea Lange

Date: 1936

Medium: Photograph Film, Gelatin silver print

Location: Private Collection

Period: Social realism

Subject: Florence Owens Thompson, The Great Depression

Location: Museum of Modern Art, New York

John Langley Howard

Howard wanted to communicate society’s needs for the betterment of the future. His landscapes began to include industry and its effects on the surrounding region. Howard was hired by the FPA in 1934 to create a mural for the inside of Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco depicting California industry. The project had twenty-seven artists depict a scene central to California living, including industry, agriculture, law, and street scenes of San Francisco. (“JOHN LANGLEY HOWARD (1902-1999) - Artists”)

There is no doubt that this mural communicated a need for a better future. This mural spoke and startled the public so much that Howard was accused of trying to start a Communist revolution. The details, the colors, and the story he tells, no wonder it drew notorious attention. It is the only Mural that Howard created.