ART of the GREAT DEPRESSION Art from the 1930s Brandy Sitts (under staff)

Connect history with images Spanish Civil War Waterloo Picasso, Guernica Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps

Art History Time Line history-timeline/ $ history-timeline/ 6sm.htm Free online 6sm.htm

WPA Works Progress Administration – Renamed in 1939 at Work Project Administration – Largest New Deal Agency – Employed Millions to Carry Out Public Works Projects – Created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt – Between 1935 and 1943 provided 8 million jobs – Created over 5,000 jobs for artists –

Florian Durzynski The walls of a Beverly Hills home decorate with original Durzynski murals

Helen and Margaret Bruton this work is by Margaret Robert Stetson

Art of the New Deal NORMAN, OKLA. – In light of the current U.S. economy and its historic correlation to the 1930s, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art premieres a new exhibition of New Deal-era artwork this spring. Revisiting the New Deal: Government Patronage and the Fine Arts, opens Friday, Feb. 5, Joseph Hirsch, Street Scene

Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936

Mabel Dwight In the Crowd Banana Men

Diego Rivera, Frozen Assets

Diego Rivera, The Flower Carrier

Reginald Marsh, The Park Bench

Beh Shahn, Village Speakeasy, Closed for Violation

Jacob Burke, The Lord Provides

Nicolai Cikovsky, On the East River Blanche Grambs, No Work

Eli Jacobi, All Night Mission

Louis Lozowick, Lynching (Lynch Law)

David Alfaro Siqueiros, Workman

Thomas Hart Benton, "Kansas City," from Politics, Farming, and the Law

Philip Evergood, Sorrowing Farmers

HANDS ON TIME!!!! Charcoal is inexpensive, readily available, and easily made. Charcoal has been used since pre-historic cave drawings and artists still use it today. Many artists during the G.D. used inexpensive or free materials they could create themselves.

Making Charcoal Find some sticks. Willow is great but you can use anything, even dowels. Bundle sticks together in heavy aluminum foil… try to prevent air transfer. You can use 2 layers. Air will turn your sticks to ash. Have a bonfire! -Or put the packs in a BBQ pit or vented fireplace. Takes several hours to overnight. Experiment. Too much heat melts foil, too little and sticks won’t carbonize. Open after cooling. There will be some sticky stuff on the foil. This is the sap and liquids. Charcoal that didn’t get enough heat is called a “Brand”… they will be stick in the middle. You can throw them in the next batch. There are lots of resources on how to make charcoal online.

Charcoal Drawing To make the student work look more “authentic” use brown butcher paper or cheap newsprint. Start out with gentle lines for the body of your work. Then go back and add darker details. Charcoal smears… use this to your advantage. Use your fingers to “rub in” the shading in your work. Charcoal is easy to clean up. You can spray a few wisps of aerosol hairspray over the work to make it more permanent… this isn’t required.

Sample Discussion Starters What is the story of migrant mother… before you explain her to your kids. Tell the story from the perspective of the photographer… why did Dorothea take this image? What happened after this image? How did the kids grow up? Did their time homeless during the GD affect their lives? How would it affect your life? Could you survive? Reginald Marsh Look at the colors in this work. Do they reflect the person’s physical or emotional state… or both. Would this work show the same emotion in bright, bold colors? What do you see in the background?

Mabel Dwight Why doesn’t she use color? Is it because she can’t afford it or because she can’t “see” it? What has this crowd gone through? Besides their clothes how can you tell they are poor? What has their situation done to their bodies? Do the banana men enjoy their work? Do you think they’ve been working long? What has their work done to their bodies? Diego Rivera What’s upstairs in Frozen Assets? What does this symbolize? Does this relate to any current events? How does this reflect peoples’ feelings about the economy today?