Now through January 3, 2010
In 1934, Americans grappled with an economic situation that feels all too familiar today. Against the backdrop of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration created the Public Works of Art Program—the first federal government program to support the arts nationally. Federal officials in the 1930s understood how essential art was to sustaining America's spirit. Artists from across the United States who participated in the program, which lasted only six months from mid-December 1933 to June 1934, were encouraged to depict "the American Scene." The Public Works of Art Program not only paid artists to embellish public buildings, but also provided them with a sense of pride in serving their country. They painted regional, recognizable subjects—ranging from portraits to cityscapes and images of city life to landscapes and depictions of rural life—that reminded the public of quintessential American values such as hard work, community and optimism.
1934: A New Deal for Artists celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Public Works of Art Program by drawing on the Smithsonian American Art Museum's unparalleled collection of vibrant paintings created for the program. The 56 paintings in the exhibition are a lasting visual record of America at a specific moment in time. George Gurney, deputy chief curator, organized the exhibition with Ann Prentice Wagner, curatorial associate.
Publication:
A catalogue, fully illustrated in color and co-published by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and D Giles Ltd. in London, is forthcoming in July 2009. It will feature an essay by Roger Kennedy, historian and director emeritus of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History; individual entries for each artwork by Ann Prentice Wagner; and an introduction by the museum's director Elizabeth Broun. The book will be available online and in the museum store for $49.95 (softcover $35).
Flickr Group:
The museum is sharing nearly 400 artworks and related objects dated 1934 from its collection with the public by creating an image group on Flickr. Join the group and add your images from 1934!
Picturing the 1930s:
This educational Web site allows online visitors to explore the 1930s through paintings, artist memorabilia, historical documents, newsreels, period photographs, music, and video in a virtual, 3-D movie theater. Beginning March 15, 2009, users can create their own documentary videos and submit them to the virtual theater on the site. New content will debut periodically for each of the eight theme rooms. A Flickr group of artworks from the 1930s is available for use in documentaries created for the site's virtual cinema.
Tour:
The exhibition will begin a three-year national tour in 2010.
Credit:
1934: A New Deal for Artists is organized and circulated by the Smithsonian American Art Museum with support from the William R. Kenan, Jr. Endowment Fund and the Smithsonian Council for American Art. The C.F. Foundation in Atlanta supports the museum's traveling exhibition program, Treasures to Go.
The above was from http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/
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Entry sign:
1934: A New Deal for Artists:
The United States of America was in crisis as 1934 approached. Art seemed irrelevant as the national economy fell into a profound depression after the stock market crash of October 1929. Thousands of banks failed, wiping out the life savings of millions of families. Farmers battled drought, erosion, declining food prices. Businesses struggled or collapsed. A quarter of the workforce was unemployed, while an equal number worked reduced hours. More and more people were homeless and hungry. Nearly 10,000 unemployed artists faced destruction.
The nation looked expectantly to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was inaugurated in March 1933. The new administration swiftly initiated a wide-ranging series of economic recovery programs called the New Deal. The President realized that Americans needed not only employment but also the inspiration art could provide. On December 8, 1933, the Advisory Committee to the Treasury on the Fine Arts organized the Public Works of Art Project. Within days, sixteen regional committees were recruiting artists who eagerly set to work in all parts of America. Between December 1933 and June 1934, the PWAP hired 3,749 artists who created 15,663 paintings, murals, sculptures, prints, drawings, and craft works.
The PWAP suggested "the American Scene" as appropriate subject matter, but allowed artists to interpret this idea freely. PWAP images vividly capture the realities and ideals of Depression-era America. The PWAP art displayed in schools, libraries, post offices, museums, and government buildings lifted the spirits of Americans all over the country. The success of the PWAP paved the way for later New Deal art programs, including the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project,. In April 1934, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC exhibited over 500 works created under the PWAP. President Franklin Roosevelt, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and government officials who attended the exhibition acclaimed the art enthusiastically. The Roosevelts selected thirty-two paintings for the White House, while senators, representatives, and cabinet secretaries chose works to adorn their offices. During the 1960s, hundreds of these PWAP paintings were transferred to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where they open windows into the America of 1934.
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