A few interesting points about WPA art. First, some amazing art was produced, especially murals and frescoes in public buildings. Many thousands of artists survived during Depression era on works made to suit the standards, Most of it was junk and was junked. The goal was to idealize American values, to make feel-good art and much of it did just that. But the best artists were often quite critical and tended to show the underlying contradictions in American society. Some were rather subtle in their criticism. Grant wood, Thomas Hart Benton, Phillip Evergood, Reginald Marsh, Phillip Guston, were a few of those. But their critical (leftist) outlook was contrary to the the political propaganda preferred by the Government The more idealistic stuff began to look a lot like official Fascist art, such as that promoted by Hitler. By the end of WWII is was over and new modernist art began its rise. Encyclopaedia Britannica put together one of the nation's best private collections of WPA and American Scene painting in the 40s. You can find books of the collection, probably in good second hand book stores online. So much of that work is very impressive and should be exhibited much more than it is. I grew up with that art and own 7 pieces by Reginald Marsh which I admire every day. wc
----- Original Message ---- From: joseph berg <[email protected]> To: aesthetics-l <[email protected]> Sent: Fri, January 6, 2012 5:51:14 PM Subject: Re: WPA Tonight on PBS' "Need to Know": http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/video/video-fixing-government-dj-spooky-on-investing-in-the-arts/12650/ On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 5:23 PM, joseph berg <[email protected]> wrote: > Time to bring that back?
