The Art During The Great Depression
and The Second New Deal
Like most of you know, the Great Depression started in 1929 and lasted until 1939, due to the crash of the Stock market. This time of great struggle produced a lot of new art styles and a big amount of new art pieces.
The biggest step forward for the art world was, when Roosevelt instituted the "Second New Deal" during the Great Depression, to help stabilize the economy, with a series of experimental project and programs. He recognized artists as serious workers and included them in his deal’s big times.
One of those programs was the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which provided jobs for unemployed people. Additional to this, the WPA also oversaw a group of programs collectively known as Federal Project Number One. The purpose of this was to give work to artists, writers, theater directors and musicians.
Roosevelt intended to put artists back to work while entertaining and inspiring the larger population by creating a hopeful view of life amidst the economic turmoil. (History.com Editors)
Due to the connection between WPA and the Great Depression, I will concentrate on showcasing paintings from artists, which worked for the WPA during this time.
Jackson Pollock
Pollock was one of those artists, working for WPA. During this time, he painted this piece, "Going West" in 1934/1935 in the Expressionism style. It is being speculated, that it was inspired by a family photo in Wyoming. It might be also a statement of a pioneering family moving west, possibly of the fact that his family moved west to Arizona and then later to California when he was a child.
This painting is very appealing to me, and I just love the colors and the style and would think that my bedroom is a great place to hang this up.
However, Pollock is mostly known for his "Drip Art" between 1947 and 1950, I still have chosen "Going West", because it was created during his work with Public Works Administration's (PWA) mural division, a WPA program. Therefore, it relates to the Great Depression.
Here is also an example of one of his Drip Art paintings, "Reflection of the Big Dipper", from 1947, because I know that at least some of you are curious now.
I am not going to lie, it is not bad, but also not my most favorite piece of him. I prefer the first one or some other earlier art from Pollock and I am seriously considering having my children become artists.
Philip Guston
Guston was born in Canada and later moved through the United States which brought him into New York. This is, where he worked for the WPA program and created multiple art projects.
"Maintaining America's Skills" is a mural, created by Guston, which was located above the entrance of the WPA building in New York. Unfortunately, the mural was destroyed when the temporary building was demolished in 1940. However, visitors to the World's Fair in 1939 voted this work the best outdoor mural of the more than four hundred on exhibit.
The print shows multiple independent workers, like a construction worker on the left, a scientist in the middle and two road construction workers to the right. I really love this and wish it would not have been destroyed and we need more buildings like this nowadays.
Fun fact, Guston and Jackson Pollock went to school together in California, and both got expelled for "publishing and distributing a leaflet which satirized the English department and criticized the popularity of sports in the school." (philipguston.org) Pollock was able to go back to School but not Guston, who studied and painted independently and worked various part-time jobs.
This was a big coincident and I had no idea that those two artists were connected until just now. Even if it is not relevant to the Great Depression, however, I could not keep this information and my excitement away from you all.
Mark Rothko
Rothko was an American Abstract artist of the mid-20th century. He was a very smart man and well educated, however, he had no training in painting, drawing or any type of art.
He was also employed by the WPA, just like the other mentioned artists and before he created his famous Masterpieces I will mention further at the bottom.
One of the paintings he created in 1937, is "Subway", in which you can see people standing at the subway station in New York city and waiting for their train. One is reading a paper another one has her child with her, and the others are just standing there. They all are tall, skinny, and simplified, almost compressed but I still like it very much.
It is a part of his subway series, paintings in or around the subway in New York and they all seem to display the loneliness and isolation of modern urban life. It has an actual deeper meaning for Rothko, who suffered from depressions and probably just expressed his feelings with those art pieces. This happened before he created his popular Masterpieces, abstract canvases, with floating rectangles and simple colors.
I am going to add one of those to visualize what I am talking about. This is an art piece from 1961, with the simple and obvious name "Orange, Red, Yellow" and believe it or not, this was sold as one of the most expensive paintings, sold at auctions, ever. It made a whooping $87 million Dollar.
Do not mind me leaving to get a canvas and some paint. I will be back once I am rich.
Thank you for reading,
Stay safe,
Sylvia
I really enjoyed reading and learning about the Great Depression. I really like the artwork “Going West”. I thought it was very visual and even with only a few distinct lines, the colors are distinguished enough that it gives you the view of the cattle and wagons moving though the mountains. I also really enjoyed the “Reflection of the Big Dipper”. I used to think it was just a bunch of colors but learning from this class has taught me all the hard work and lines and colors that are involved in this abstract painting. Great post!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite work that you presented is by Rothko. I find many pieces from every era to be very similar and boring in certain regards, possibly because many painters went to school. You mentioned Rothko didn't, however, and I find his piece to be the most interesting by far. The pillars that separate the groups of people seem to bring out the hustle of newly modernizing society and how detached the people are. The lankiness of everyone gives it a somewhat of a schizo feel as well and you mentioned his struggle with mental well-being which makes sense.
ReplyDeleteWow! I was vaguely familiar with Pollock's drip artwork but I had no idea he had other pieces done in such a different style. Really shows the range artists can have! I really enjoy Rothko's pieces, I enjoy the muted almost contrasting colors of it as well as the exaggerated proportions of the people that is a staple of the early modern movement.
ReplyDelete