1934: A New Deal for Artists [Hardcover]

Ann Prentice Wagner (Author), Elizabeth Broun (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 16, 2009

The volume and accompanying exhibition feature 56 paintings from the Smithsonian's unique collection created for the Public Works of Art program during the Great Depression

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ann Prentice Wagner, curatorial assistant, Smithsonian American Art Museum; Roger G. Kennedy, historian and director emeritus of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History; Elizabeth Broun, director, Smithsonian American Art Museum since 1989, author of works on Childe Hassam, James McNeill Whistler and Patrick Ireland amongst others

Product Details

• Hardcover: 156 pages
• Publisher: D Giles Ltd (August 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904832679
• ISBN-13: 978-1904832676
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 10.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #327,005 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Creativity works, September 13, 2009

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 1934: A New Deal for Artists (Hardcover)

An interesting collection of historical paintings from a government sponsored art program during the Depression. President Roosevelt took the view that it wasn't just industry that was required to get the country back on its feet. Why not help all workers and that included creative types like writers or musicians or artists. The paintings in the book were commissioned from artists in a seven month period starting during December 1933. 3,750 artists were paid and they created 15,600 works. The Smithsonian has 180 of these from which the fifty-five were selected for the book.

The artists were encouraged to interpret the `American scene' and the book arranges the paintings as: American people; Labor; Industry; Leisure; City; Country and Nature. Most of the artists follow the regionalist style of Benton, Curry and Wood and wisely avoid any of the 'ism' styles prevalent in Europe during the first decades of the last century.

Within the confines of representational art I was pleased to see plenty of variation, like the block figures of Douglas Crockwell's 'Paper workers' or Ivan Albright's excessively fussy face and hands in his 'Farmer's kitchen' painting. Paul Kelpe, more concerned with aesthetic art concepts, managed to get accepted his very graphic 'Machinery (Abstract #2)'. There is even a nod towards Photorealism in the painting: 'Underpass - Binghamton, New York' which strangely has no credits. I thought the weakest section was Nature, the eight paintings seem rather separate from the troubles of the times but one of them, by Ross Dickinson, is a gorgeous study of the countryside (used on the book's cover) very reminiscent of Grant Wood's 'Stone City' .

Overall an interesting collection but I was disappointed the remaining 125 paintings that the Smithsonian has from the Public Works Art Project weren't included in this book, even if they were just large thumbnails.

The book is a pleasant contemporary style design, printed on matt art paper. Unfortunately the absence of an index seems a publisher's oversight. Roger Kennedy contributes an interesting seventeen page essay in the front of the book setting the paintings in historical context though I couldn't find any reference to how each artist was selected to take part in the Project.

***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.