Painting – 1930s Federal Programs for the Arts –Funding of art in post offices, schools and court houses –Artists – tend to lean left, support working class John Reed Clubs Artists’ Union (1934) –Art Front – Artists’ Union journal ( ) –Some see cause as class struggle against capitalism –Some push for unions, not socialism –Most want federal art programs

–Public Works of Art Project (PWAP ) – Treasury Dept. –Replaced by Section of Painting and Sculpture in the Treasury Dept. (1934) –Joins (1935) with Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) and the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (FAP/WPA) is created –As of 1935 – Treasury Section and FAP/WPA –FAP/WPA – from , employs 1000s of artists – painters, sculptors Holger Cahill, director Influenced by John Dewey Art for all Americans, art “distinctly American” Artists received weekly wage (3-5,000 employed) Preference for representational, narrative art

Treasury Section (not a relief organization – TRAP is) –Edward Bruce, director –Artists compete for work in federal buildings –Work approved ahead of time and monitored –Funds most murals, though FAP/WPA funds some Spent $2.5 million, created 1,100 murals, 300 sculptures –Face greater restrictions Given themes – local history, local industries, local flora and fauna, local pursuits, hunting and fishing, recreational activities Nudity and poverty prohibited, slavery largely excluded Native Americans often depicted Realism not stipulated, but expected Regionalism/Social Realism

Farm Security Administration (first called Resettlement Administration) –Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, etc. Mexican Muralists –Jose Orozco, David Siqueiros, and Diego Rivera –Many murals throughout US address concerns of many US intellectuals and artists in early 30s

Rivera, Detroit Industry (South – )

Philip Evergood ( ) –President of Artists’ Union, works in FAP –Powerful depictions of struggles between workers and industrialists

Evergood, American Tragedy (1937)

Thomas Hart Benton ( ) –Parks, the Circus, the Klan, the Press (1933)Parks, the Circus, the Klan, the Press –The Social History of the State of Missouri (1936)

John Steuart Curry ( ) Tragic Prelude (1940)