Bring Back the Federal Art Project
Favorites from the Library of Congress Collection
[Update: my apologies that all the original photos I posted were taken down by NJ.Com and lost. If you use the title of the photo, I hope the links at Library Of Congress work. ~~~ end update]
Is there any doubt that the artists got it right and had a true vision?
Here are my favorites:
Matanuska Colonists : A couple with child
http://www.loc.gov/shop/index.php?action=cCatalog.showItem&cid=14&scid=164&iid=4005
George Biddle, the founder of the Federal Art Project (FAP) in 1935, said that because of the FAP, the Depression exerted, “a more invigorating effect on American art than any past event in the country’s history.” … For American art, it was a vital period that invigorated the entire country’s perception of what art could be and brought American art into the international forefront.
Wall Street
http://www.loc.gov/shop/index.php?action=cCatalog.showItem&cid=14&scid=427&iid=3716
FBI and the Statue of Liberty
http://www.loc.gov/shop/index.php?action=cCatalog.showItem&cid=14&scid=427&iid=3715
Farmer and Sons Walking in Face of Dust Storm
http://www.loc.gov/shop/index.php?action=cCatalog.showItem&cid=14&scid=174&iid=1298
Country Store on a Sunday Afternoon
http://www.loc.gov/shop/index.php?action=cCatalog.showItem&cid=14&scid=174&iid=4003
Eat more fish
http://www.loc.gov/shop/index.php?action=cCatalog.showItem&cid=14&scid=161&iid=3383
Smiling Girls from Utuado
http://www.loc.gov/shop/index.php?action=cCatalog.showItem&cid=14&scid=164&iid=1971
Commuters
http://www.loc.gov/shop/index.php?action=cCatalog.showItem&cid=14&scid=174&iid=3278
Railroad Women Having Lunch
http://www.loc.gov/shop/index.php?action=cCatalog.showItem&cid=14&scid=174&iid=3200
Itinerant Photographer, Columbus, Ohio
http://www.loc.gov/shop/index.php?action=cCatalog.showItem&cid=14&scid=185&iid=3988
Children in the tenement district, Brockton, Mass.
http://www.loc.gov/shop/index.php?action=cCatalog.showItem&cid=14&scid=164&iid=3992
The FAP created thousands of murals in public buildings all across the country. Artist such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Louise Nevelson, all left a moment of their creativity to posterity because of this program. As art historian Francis O’Connor said, “Something very vital indeed, something revolutionary happened to American culture during the 1930’s.”
One of the FAP’s major activities was the index of American Design. The project helped popularizing American folk art by documenting the countries “usable past” of over 20,000 photographic records of American art, painting, sculpture, handicraft and folk art.
By 1943, unemployment –the primary reason for the programs creation –dipped to the point that the program was canceled. The Library of Congress is the largest single holder of WPA posters, having over 900 in its collection.
http://www.loc.gov/shop/index.php?action=cCatalog.showItem&cid=14&scid=183&iid=3431