Federal Art Project#Index of American Design
{{short description|New Deal relief program to fund the visual arts}}
{{Infobox government agency
| name = Federal Art Project
| logo = Federal-Art-Project-Icon.jpg
| logo_caption = Eagle and palette design regarded as the logo of the Federal Art Project
| formed = {{Start date|1935|08|29|df=yes}}
| dissolved = {{end date|1943}}
| jurisdiction = United States
| headquarters = Washington, D.C.
| chief1_name = Holger Cahill
| parent_department = Works Progress Administration (WPA)
}}
The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the largest of the New Deal art projects. It was created not as a cultural activity, but as a relief measure to employ artists and artisans to create murals, easel paintings, sculpture, graphic art, posters, photography, theatre scenic design, and arts and crafts. The WPA Federal Art Project established more than 100 community art centers throughout the country, researched and documented American design, commissioned a significant body of public art without restriction to content or subject matter, and sustained some 10,000 artists and craft workers during the Great Depression. According to American Heritage, “Something like 400,000 easel paintings, murals, prints, posters, and renderings were produced by WPA artists during the eight years of the project’s existence, virtually free of government pressure to control subject matter, interpretation, or style.”{{Cite journal |last=Laning |first=Edward |date=1970-10-01 |title=When Uncle Sam Played Patron of the Arts: Memoirs of a WPA Painter |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/when-uncle-sam-played-patron-arts-memoirs-wpa-painter |access-date=2022-10-01 |journal=American Heritage|volume=21|number=6|language=en-us}}
Background
{{See also|Works Progress Administration|Federal Project Number One}}
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| image1 = Federal-Art-Project-Employment-and-Activities-1936.jpg
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| caption1 = Poster summarizing Federal Art Project employment and activities (November 1, 1936)
| image2 = Florence-Kawa-The-Workers-1935.jpg
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| caption2 = The Workers (c. 1935), a wall hanging created by Florence Kawa for the Milwaukee Handicraft Project, was presented to Eleanor Roosevelt{{Rp|164}}
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The Federal Art Project was the visual arts arm of Federal Project Number One, a program of the Works Progress Administration, which was intended to provide employment for struggling artists during the Great Depression. Funded under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, it operated from August 29, 1935, until June 30, 1943. It was created as a relief measure to employ artists and artisans to create murals, easel paintings, sculpture, graphic art, posters, photographs, Index of American Design documentation, museum and theatre scenic design, and arts and crafts. The Federal Art Project operated community art centers throughout the country where craft workers and artists worked, exhibited, and educated others.{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/employment-and-activities-poster-wpas-federal-art-project-11772 |title=Employment and Activities poster for the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1936|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-16 }} The project created more than 200,000 separate works, some of them remaining among the most significant pieces of public art in the country.{{cite book |last=Kalfatovic |first=Martin R. |date=1994 |title=The New Deal Fine Arts Projects: A Bibliography, 1933–1992 |url=https://archive.org/details/newdealfineartsp00kalf |location=Metuchen, N.J. |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=0-8108-2749-2 |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
The Federal Art Project's primary goals were to employ out-of-work artists and to provide art for nonfederal municipal buildings and public spaces. Artists were paid $23.60 a week; tax-supported institutions such as schools, hospitals, and public buildings paid only for materials.{{cite news |last=Brenner |first=Anita |date=April 10, 1938 |title=America Creates American Murals |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1938/04/10/archives/american-creates-american-murals-to-bid-for-the-favor-of-a-new-mass.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2015-06-16 }} The work was divided into art production, art instruction, and art research. The primary output of the art-research group was the Index of American Design, a mammoth and comprehensive study of American material culture.
As many as 10,000 artists were commissioned to produce work for the WPA Federal Art Project, the largest of the New Deal art projects. Three comparable but distinctly separate New Deal art projects were administered by the United States Department of the Treasury: the Public Works of Art Project (1933–1934), the Section of Painting and Sculpture (1934–1943), and the Treasury Relief Art Project (1935–1938).{{cite web |url=http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/101384 |title=New Deal Artwork: GSA's Inventory Project |publisher=General Services Administration |access-date=2015-06-16 |archive-date=2017-07-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170720013035/https://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/101384 |url-status=dead }}
The WPA program made no distinction between representational and nonrepresentational art. Abstraction had not yet gained favor in the 1930s and 1940s, so was virtually unsalable. As a result, the Federal Art Project supported such iconic artists as Jackson Pollock before their work could earn them income.Atkins, Robert (1993). ArtSpoke: A Guide to Modern Ideas, Movements, and Buzzwords, 1848-1944. Abbeville Press. {{ISBN|978-1-55859-388-6}}.
One particular success was the Milwaukee Handicraft Project, which started in 1935 as an experiment that employed 900 people who were classified as unemployable due to their age or disability.{{Rp|164}} The project came to employ about 5,000 unskilled workers, many of them women and the long-term unemployed. Historian John Gurda observed that the city's unemployment hovered at 40% in 1933. "In that year," he said, "53 percent of Milwaukee's property taxes went unpaid because people just could not afford to make the tax payments."{{cite web |url=http://www.wpr.org/depression-era-milwaukee-handicraft-project-put-thousands-people-work |title=Depression-Era Milwaukee Handicraft Project Put Thousands of People to Work|last=Whaley |first=K. P. |date=April 30, 2014 |website=The Kathleen Dunn Show |publisher=Wisconsin Public Radio |access-date=2015-11-29}} Workers were taught bookbinding, block printing, and design, which they used to create handmade art books and children's books. They produced toys, dolls,{{cite web |url=http://www.wisconsinart.org/archives/affiliation/wpa-milwaukee-handicraft-project-109.aspx |title=WPA – Milwaukee Handicraft Project |publisher=Museum of Wisconsin Art |access-date=2015-11-29 |archive-date=2015-12-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208134332/http://www.wisconsinart.org/archives/affiliation/wpa-milwaukee-handicraft-project-109.aspx |url-status=dead }} theatre costumes, quilts, rugs, draperies, wall hangings, and furniture that were purchased by schools, hospitals,{{Rp|164}} and municipal organizations{{cite web |url=https://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm?_y=1936&_f=md054487 |last=Roosevelt |first=Eleanor |author-link=Eleanor Roosevelt |date=November 13, 1936 |title=My Day |website=Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project |publisher=The George Washington University |access-date=2015-06-16 }} for the cost of materials only.{{cite web |url=https://www4.uwm.edu/eti/wpamilw.htm |title=WPA Milwaukee Handicraft Project |website=School of Continuing Education, Employment and Training Institute |publisher=University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee |access-date=2015-11-29 |archive-date=2019-11-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191102154325/http://www4.uwm.edu/eti/wpamilw.htm |url-status=dead }} In 2014, when the Museum of Wisconsin Art mounted an exhibition of items created by the Milwaukee Handicraft Project, furniture from it was still being used at the Milwaukee Public Library.
Holger Cahill was national director of the Federal Art Project. Other administrators included Audrey McMahon, director of the New York Region (New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia); Clement B. Haupers, director for Minnesota;{{cite web |url=http://www.mnhs.org/library/tips/history_topics/07wpa.php |title=WPA Art Project |website=Library |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society |access-date=2015-11-29}} George Godfrey Thorp (Illinois),Smithsonian. Archives of American Art. [https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/george-godfrey-thorp-papers-5770 George Godfrey Thorp papers, 1941–1970] and Robert Bruce Inverarity, director for Washington. Regional New York supervisors of the Federal Art Project have included sculptor William Ehrich (1897–1960) of the Buffalo Unit (1938–1939), project director of the Buffalo Zoo expansion.{{Cite web|url=http://ehrich.us/biography.html|title=William Ernst Ehrich Biography|last=Ehrich|first=Nancy and Roger|access-date=17 August 2018}}
==Notable artists==
{{main|List of Federal Art Project artists}}
Some 10,000 artists were commissioned to work for the Federal Art Project. Notable artists include the following:
{{div col|colwidth=18em|rules=yes}}
- William Abbenseth{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-william-abbenseth-13069 |title=Oral history interview with William Abbenseth |date=November 23, 1964 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-16 }}
- Berenice Abbott{{cite web |url=https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/changing-new-york#/?tab=about |title=Background |website=Changing New York |publisher=New York Public Library |access-date=2015-06-16 }}
- Ida York Abelman{{Rp|178}}
- Gertrude Abercrombie{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/gertrude-abercrombie-papers-5608/more |title=Gertrude Abercrombie papers |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-11 }}
- Benjamin Abramowitz{{cite web |url=http://benjaminabramowitz.com/bio/biography.html |title=The Artist and His Life |website=The Artwork of Benjamin Abramowitz (1917–2011) |publisher=S.A. Rosenbaum & Associates |access-date=2015-06-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150812055926/http://benjaminabramowitz.com/bio/biography.html |archive-date=2015-08-12 |url-status=dead }}
- Abe Ajay{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/374122 |title=Abe Ajay, Industry |website=The Collection Online |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Ivan Albright{{cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Roger G. |author-link1=Roger G. Kennedy|last2=Larkin |first2=David |date=2009 |title=When Art Worked: The New Deal, Art, and Democracy |location=New York |publisher=Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.|isbn=978-0-8478-3089-3 }}{{Rp|161}}
- Maxine Albro{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-maxine-albro-and-parker-hall-12350 |title=Oral history interview with Maxine Albro and Parker Hall |date=July 27, 1964 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-16 }}
- Charles Alston{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-charles-henry-alston-11482 |title=Oral history interview with Charles Henry Alston|date=September 28, 1965 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-16 }}
- Harold Ambellan{{cite web |url=http://wnyheritagepress.org/photos_week_2009/willert_wpa_art/willert_wpa_art.htm |title=The Artists of Buffalo's Willert Park Courts Sculptures |publisher=Western New York Heritage Press |access-date=2015-06-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101203093008/http://wnyheritagepress.org/photos_week_2009/willert_wpa_art/willert_wpa_art.htm |archive-date=2010-12-03 }}
- Luis Arenal{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/luis-arenal-3179 |title=Luis Arenal|date=August 7, 1936 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-13 }}
- Bruce Ariss{{cite web |url=http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/pacific-grove-high-school-mural-pacific-grove-ca/ |title=Pacific Grove High School Mural – Pacific Grove CA |website=The Living New Deal |publisher=Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2015-06-15 }}
- Victor Arnautoff{{cite web |url=http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/george-washington-high-school-arnautoff-mural-san-francisco-ca/ |title=George Washington High School: Arnautoff Mural – San Francisco CA |website=The Living New Deal |publisher=Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2015-06-15 }}
- Sheva Ausubel{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/sheva-ausubel-3163 |title=Sheva Ausubel|date=March 30, 1937 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-13 }}
- Jozef Bakos{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-jozef-and-teresa-bakos-12456 |title=Oral history interview with Jozef and Teresa Bakos, 1965|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2016-04-20 }}
- Henry Bannarn{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/henry-w-bannarn-1950 |title=Henry W. Bannarn, ca. 1937|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Belle Baranceanu{{cite web|title=Belle Baranceanu (1902-1988)|url=http://www.sandiegohistory.org/online_resources/baranceanu.html |publisher=San Diego History Center |access-date=2016-04-20}}
- Patrociño Barela{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-patrocino-barela-5438 |title=Oral history interview with Patrociño Barela|date=July 2, 1964 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-15 }}
- Will Barnet{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/374200 |title=Will Barnet, Labor |website=The Collection Online |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Richmond Barthé{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/richmond-barthe-1952 |title=Richmond Barthe, 1941 Apr. 4 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Herbert Bayer{{Rp|195}}
- William Baziotes{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/william-and-ethel-baziotes-papers-8872 |title=William and Ethel Baziotes papers, 1916–1992 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Lester Beall{{Rp|194}}
- Harrison Begay{{cite web |url=http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/wpa-art-collection-gallup-nm/ |title=WPA Art Collection – Gallup NM|website=The Living New Deal |publisher=Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2015-07-19 }}
- Daisy Maud BellisEdward Alden Jewell (August 27, 1933). "“Musings Way Down east,” New York Times"{{cite web | title=Bellis, Daisy Maud | website=Connecticut State Library | date=27 August 1933 | url=http://ctstatelibrary.org/bellis-daisy-maud/ | access-date=2 July 2016}}
- Rainey Bennett{{cite book |last=Cahill |first=Holger |author-link=Holger Cahill |editor-last=Barr |editor-first=Alfred H. Jr. |date=1936|title=New Horizons in American Art |location=New York |publisher=Museum of Modern Art |oclc=501632161 }}{{Rp|138}}
- Aaron Berkman{{cite web |url=http://www.92y.org/Uptown/Milstein-Rosenthal-Center-for-Media-Technology/92Y-Archives/Collection-Descriptions-and-Finding-Aids/Arts-and-Culture.aspx |title=Arts and Culture, Art Center records 1930–2004, Finding Aid |last=Abbott |first=Leala |date=December 2004 |website=Milstein/Rosenthal Center for Media & Technology |publisher=92nd Street Y |access-date=2015-06-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150621213159/http://www.92y.org/Uptown/Milstein-Rosenthal-Center-for-Media-Technology/92Y-Archives/Collection-Descriptions-and-Finding-Aids/Arts-and-Culture.aspx |archive-date=2015-06-21 |url-status=dead }}
- Leon Bibel{{cite web |url=http://museums.richmond.edu/exhibitions/lora-robins-gallery/Leon-Bibel.html |title=Leon Bibel: Art, Activism, and the WPA |website=Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature |publisher=University of Richmond |access-date=2015-06-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150623105725/http://museums.richmond.edu/exhibitions/lora-robins-gallery/Leon-Bibel.html |archive-date=2015-06-23 }}
- Robert Blackburn{{Rp|170}}
- Arnold Blanch{{Rp|153}}
- Lucile Blanch{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/lucile-blanch-1976 |title=Lucile Blanch, 1940 Oct. 31|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Lucienne Bloch
- Aaron Bohrod{{Rp|144}}
- Ilya Bolotowsky{{cite web |url=http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/1939-worlds-fair-mural-study-chicago-il/ |title=1939 World's Fair Mural Study – Chicago IL |website=The Living New Deal |publisher=Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2015-06-10 }}{{cite web |url=http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/williamsburg-housing-development-murals-brooklyn-ny/ |title=Williamsburg Housing Development Murals – Brooklyn NY|website=The Living New Deal |publisher=Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2015-06-10 }}
- Adele Brandeis{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-adele-brandeis-12249 |title=Oral history interview with Adele Brandeis |date=June 1, 1965 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-18 }}
- Louise Brann{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/louise-brann-5815 |title=Louise Brann, ca. 1935|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Edgar Britton{{Rp|138}}
- Manuel Bromberg{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/manuel-bromberg-3132 |title=Manuel Bromberg, 1939 Jan. 23 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- James Brooks{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-james-brooks-12719 |title=Oral history interview with James Brooks |date=June 10–12, 1965 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}{{cite news |author= |title=Bailey, Chief Librarian, Praises WPA Art Project |newspaper=Long Island Sunday Press |location=Long Island, New York |date=April 5, 1936 }}
- Selma Burke{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/selma-burke-2007 |title=Selma Burke |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-16 }}
- Letterio Calapai{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/letterio-calapai-3128 |title=Letterio Calapai, ca. 1937|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Samuel Cashwan{{Rp|156}}
- Giorgio Cavallon{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-giorgio-cavallon-11855 |title=Oral history interview with Giorgio Cavallon, 1974|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2016-04-20 }}
- Daniel Celentano{{cite web |url=https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/p-s-150-mural-queens-ny/ |title=P.S. 150 Mural – Queens NY|website=The Living New Deal |publisher=Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2016-05-11 }}
- Dane Chanase{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/dane-chanase-2019 |title=Dane Chanase, 1942 Jan. 26|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Fay Chong{{cite web |url=https://depts.washington.edu/depress/FAP.shtml |title=The Federal Art Project in Washington State |last=Mahoney |first=Eleanor |date=2012 |website=The Great Depression in Washington State |publisher=Pacific Northwest Labor and Civil Rights Project, University of Washington |access-date=2015-06-23}}
- Claude Clark{{cite web |url=http://metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/372005 |title=Claude Clark Sr., In the Groove |website=The Collection Online |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2016-04-20 }}
- Max Arthur Cohn{{cite web |url=http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=935 |title=Max Arthur Cohn|publisher=Smithsonian American Art Museum |access-date=2018-01-25 }}
- Eldzier Cortor{{cite web |url=http://www.gsa.gov/graphics/admin/recovering_americas_art.swf |title=Recovering America's Art for America |date=2010 |publisher=General Services Administration |access-date=2015-06-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924024014/http://www.gsa.gov/graphics/admin/recovering_americas_art.swf |archive-date=2015-09-24 |url-status=dead }}
- Arthur Covey{{cite web |url=http://wpa.cslib.org/index.php/category/artists/ |title=Artists |website=WPA Art Inventory Project |publisher=Connecticut State Library |access-date=2015-07-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150704133818/http://wpa.cslib.org/index.php/category/artists/ |archive-date=2015-07-04 }}
- Alfred D. Crimi{{cite web |title=Artist: Alfred D. Crimi |url=https://livingnewdeal.org/artists/alfred-d-crimi/ |website=The Living New Deal |access-date=May 3, 2019}}
- Francis Criss{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/francis-criss-3092 |title=Francis Criss, 1940 Oct. 29|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Allan Crite{{Rp|144}}
- Robert Cronbach
- John Steuart Curry
- Philip Campbell Curtis{{cite web |url=http://www.phxart.org/visit/aboutus/historyandmission |title=History and Mission |website=About Us |publisher=Phoenix Art Museum |access-date=2015-06-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905093835/http://www.phxart.org/visit/aboutus/historyandmission |archive-date=2015-09-05 }}
- James Daugherty
- Stuart Davis{{cite web |url=http://www.wnyc.org/story/215721-stuart-davis/ |title=Art in Public: Stuart Davis on Abstract Art and the WPA, 1939|last=Conn |first=Charis |date=February 15, 2013|website=Annotations: The NEH Preservation Project|publisher=WNYC |access-date=2015-06-16 }}
- Adolf Dehn{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/adolf-dehn-2057 |title=Adolf Dehn, 1940 Oct. 29|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Willem de Kooning{{Rp|186}}
- Burgoyne Diller{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-burgoyne-diller-12944 |title=Oral history interview with Burgoyne Diller |date=October 2, 1964 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-16 }}
- Isami Doi{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/374637 |title=Isami Doi, Near Coney Island |website=The Collection Online |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2015-06-19 }}
- Mabel Dwight{{Rp|180, 182}}
- Ruth Egri{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/ruth-egri-2079 |title=Ruth Egri, 1937 Apr. 12|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Fritz Eichenberg{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/374656 |title=Fritz Eichenberg, April |website=The Collection Online |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Jacob Elshin
- George Pearse Ennis{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/george-pearse-ennis-3270 |title=George Pearse Ennis, ca. 1936|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Angna Enters{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/angna-enters-2087 |title=Angna Enters, 1940 Nov. 18|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Philip Evergood{{Rp|161, 174}}
- Louis Ferstadt{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/louis-ferstadt-3071 |title=Louis Ferstadt, 1939 Jan. 25 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-19 }}
- Alexander Finta{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/alexander-finta-3069 |title=Alexander Finta, 1939 June 14|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Joseph Fleck
- Seymour Fogel{{Rp|138}}
- Lily Furedi{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/federal-art-project-photographic-division-collection-5467/more |title=Federal Art Project, Photographic Division collection, circa 1920–1965, bulk 1935–1942|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-11-27 }}
- George Michael Gaethke{{Cite book |last=Hughes |first=Edan Milton |url=http://archive.org/details/artistsincalifor0000hugh |title=Artists in California, 1786-1940 |date=1986 |publisher=Hughes Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-9616112-0-0 |location=San Francisco, CA |pages=168 |via=Internet Archive}}
- Todros Geller{{cite web |url=https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/new_deal_for_the_arts/activist_arts1.html |title=Activist Arts |website=A New Deal for the Arts |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Aaron Gelman
- Eugenie Gershoy{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/eugenie-gershoy-2120 |title=Eugenie Gershoy, 1938 Mar. 28|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Enrico Glicenstein{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/enrico-glicenstein-3045 |title=Enrico Glicenstein, 1940 Sept. 29|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Vincent Glinsky{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/vincent-glinsky-2124 |title=Vincent Glinsky, 1939 Mar. 8|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Bertram Goodman{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/bertram-goodman-2125 |title=Bertram Goodman, ca. 1939|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Arshile Gorky{{Rp|186}}
- Harry Gottlieb{{Rp|154}}
- Blanche Grambs{{Rp|154}}
- Morris Graves
- Balcomb Greene
- Marion Greenwood{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/marion-greenwood-2132 |title=Marion Greenwood, 1940 June 4|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Waylande Gregory{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/waylande-gregory-2133 |title=Waylande Gregory |date=June 2, 1937 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-16 }}
- Philip Guston{{Rp|161}}
- Irving Guyer{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/374856 |title=Irving Guyer, Reading by Lamplight |website=The Collection Online |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Abraham Harriton{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/abraham-harriton-2143 |title=Abraham Harriton, 1938 Aug. 16 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Marsden Hartley{{Rp|161}}
- Knute Heldner{{cite web |url=http://www.knowla.org/entry/501/ |title=Federal Art Project |last1=Megraw |first1=Richard |date=January 10, 2011 |website=KnowLA Encyclopedia of Louisiana |publisher=Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities |access-date=2015-10-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915062058/http://www.knowla.org/entry/501/ |archive-date=September 15, 2015 |url-status=dead }}
- August Henkel{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/august-henkel-2151 |title=August Henkel, ca. 1939|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Ralf Henricksen{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/ralf-c-henricksen-2152 |title=Ralf C. Henricksen, 1938|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Magnus Colcord Heurlin
- Hilaire Hiler{{Rp|145}}
- Louis Hirshman{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/wpapos/item/98518713/ |title=Service on the home front There's a job for every Pennsylvanian in these civilian defense efforts. |year=1941 |publisher=Library of Congress }}{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/wpapos/item/98518714/ |title=Stop and get your free fag bag Careless matches aid the Axis. |year=1941 |publisher=Library of Congress }}
- Donal Hord{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/donal-hord-2162 |title=Donal Hord, 1937|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Axel Horn{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/axel-horr-3002 |title=Axel Horr [sic], 1940 June 28 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Milton Horn{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/milton-horn-2163 |title=Milton Horn, c. 1937 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Allan Houser
- Eitaro Ishigaki{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/eitaro-ishigaki-2986 |title=Eitaro Ishigaki, ca. 1940|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Edwin Boyd Johnson{{Rp|140}}
- Sargent Claude Johnson{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/399003 |title=Sargent Claude Johnson, Dorothy C. |website=The Collection Online |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Tom Loftin Johnson{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/tom-loftin-johnson-2982 |title=Tom Loftin Johnson, 1938 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- William H. Johnson{{cite web |url=http://americanart.si.edu/education/classroom/help/bio/ |title=William H. Johnson: A Guide for Teachers |website=American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613193628/http://americanart.si.edu/education/classroom/help/bio/ |archive-date=2015-06-13 }}
- Leonard D. Jungwirth
- Reuben Kadish{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/375028 |title=Reuben Kadish, Conversation with a Quarry Master |website=The Collection Online |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Sheffield Kagy{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/375029 |title=Sheffield Kagy, Symphony Conductor |website=The Collection Online |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Jacob Kainen{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/375050 |title=Jacob Kainen, Rooming House |website=The Collection Online |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- David Karfunkle{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/david-karfunkle-2971 |title=David Karfunkle, ca. 1938 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-19 }}
- Leon Kelly{{Rp|145}}
- Paul Kelpe
- Troy Kinney
- Georgina Klitgaard{{Rp|145}}
- Gene Kloss{{Rp|154}}
- Karl Knaths{{Rp|141, 146}}
- Edwin B. Knutesen{{Cite web|url=https://wisconsinart.org/archives/affiliation/wpa-works-progress-administration--new-deal-artists-108.aspx|title=WPA - Works Progress Administration - New Deal Artists | MOWA Online Archive|website=wisconsinart.org}}
- Lee Krasner{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-lee-krasner-12507 |title=Oral history interview with Lee Krasner |date=November 2, 1964 – April 11, 1968 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-15 }}
- Kalman Kubinyi{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/375145 |title=Kalman Kubinyi, Skaters |website=The Collection Online |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Yasuo Kuniyoshi{{Rp|154}}
- Jacob Lawrence{{Rp|161}}
- Edward Laning{{Rp|141}}
- Michael Lantz{{cite web |url=http://www.americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=2793 |title=Michael Lantz |publisher=Smithsonian American Art Museum |access-date=2015-06-19 }}
- Blanche Lazzell{{Rp|154}}
- Tom Lea{{cite web |url=http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/branson-library-art-las-cruces-nm/ |title=New Mexico State University: Branson Library Art – Las Cruces NM|website=The Living New Deal |publisher=Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2015-06-10 }}
- Lawrence Lebduska{{Rp|146}}
- Joseph Leboit{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/375189 |title=Joseph Leboit, Tranquility |website=The Collection Online |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2015-06-19 }}
- William Robinson Leigh
- Julian E. Levi{{Rp|146}}
- Jack Levine{{Rp|146}}
- Monty Lewis{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/monty-lewis-2587 |title=Monty Lewis, 1938 May 26 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Elba Lightfoot{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/elba-lightfoot-2232 |title=Elba Lightfoot, 1938 Jan. 14|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-19 }}
- Abraham Lishinsky{{Rp|141}}
- Michael Loew{{cite news |date=October 28, 1935 |title=Murals Approved of 5 WPA Artists |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/10/23/archives/murals-approved-of-5-wpa-artists-sketches-for-three-schools-and-a.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2015-06-24 }}
- Thomas Gaetano LoMedico{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/thomas-gaetano-lo-medico-2240 |title=Thomas Gaetano Lo Medico, 1938 May 12|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Louis Lozowick{{Rp|168, 171}}
- Nan Lurie{{Rp|155}}
- Guy Maccoy{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-guy-and-genoi-pettit-maccoy-11792 |title=Oral history interview with Guy and Genoi Pettit Maccoy|date=July 24, 1965 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-13 }}
- Stanton Macdonald-Wright{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/federal-art-project-artists-3006 |title=Federal Art Project Artists, 1937|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- George McNeil{{Rp|144}}
- Moissaye Marans{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/moissaye-marans-2261 |title=Moissaye Marans, ca. 1939|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- David Margolis{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/david-margolis-2898 |title=David Margolis, 1940 May 29|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-19 }}
- Kyra Markham{{Rp|155}}
- Jack Markow{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/375376 |title=Jack Markow, Street in Manasquan |website=The Collection Online |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Mercedes Matter{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/hanshofmann/mercedes_matter_002.html |title=Mercedes Matter Interview Excerpts|date=2003 |website=Hans Hofmann: Artist/Teacher, Teacher/Artist |publisher=PBS |access-date=2015-06-15 }}
- Jan Matulka{{Rp|144}}
- Dina Melicov{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/dina-melicov-2273 |title=Dina Melicov, 1939 Apr. 26 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Hugh Mesibov{{cite web |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection-search-result.html?artist=%2C%20Hugh&sortOrder=DEFAULT&pageNumber=1&lastFacet=sortOrder|title=Hugh Mesibov |website=National Gallery of Art |publisher=National Gallery of Art |access-date=2021-02-16 }}
- Katherine Milhous{{Rp|163}}
- Jo Mora{{cite web |url=http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/king-city-high-school-auditorium-bas-reliefs-king-city-ca/ |title=King City High School Auditorium Bas Reliefs – King City CA|website=The Living New Deal |publisher=Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Helmuth Naumer
- Louise Nevelson{{cite web |url=http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/1150/Louise%20Nevelson |title=Louise Nevelson |website=Guggenheim Collection Online |publisher=Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation |access-date=2015-06-15 }}
- James Michael Newell{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/james-michael-newell-2854 |title=James Michael Newell, ca. 1937 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Spencer Baird Nichols
- Elizabeth Olds{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/elizabeth-olds-2309 |title=Elizabeth Olds, 1937|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-18 }}
- John Opper{{cite news |title=Thinking in the Abstract Series |author=Mary Ann Marger |work=St. Petersburg Times |location=St. Petersburg, Florida |date=1990-05-07 |page=1D }}
- William C. Palmer{{Rp|142}}{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/william-c-palmer-5817 |title=William C. Palmer, 1936|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Phillip Pavia
- Irene Rice Pereira{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/irene-rice-pereira-2836 |title=Irene Rice Pereira, 1938 Aug. 22 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Jackson Pollock{{cite web |url=http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/963 |title=Jackson Pollock |website=Guggenheim Collection Online |publisher=Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation |access-date=2015-06-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150530122718/http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/963 |archive-date=2015-05-30 }}
- George Post{{Rp|150}}
- Gregorio Prestopino{{Rp|147}}
- Mac Raboy{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/360344 |title=Mac Raboy, Hitchhiker |website=The Collection Online |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Anton Refregier{{Rp|155}}
- Ad Reinhardt{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-ad-reinhardt-12891 |title=Oral history interview with Ad Reinhardt|date=1964 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-16 }}
- Misha Reznikoff{{Rp|147}}
- Mischa Richter
- Diego Rivera{{cite web |url=http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/city-college-san-francisco-pan-american-unity-mural-san-francisco-ca/ |title=City College of San Francisco: Rivera Mural – San Francisco CA|website=The Living New Deal |publisher=Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2015-06-15 }}
- José de Rivera{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-jos-de-rivera-12594 |title=Oral history interview with José de Rivera |date=February 24, 1968 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-12 }}
- Emanuel Glicen Romano{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/emanuel-glicen-romano-2352 |title=Emanuel Glicen Romano, 1936 Nov. 23|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-18 }}
- Mark Rothko{{Rp|161}}
- Alexander Rummler
- Augusta Savage{{cite web |url=http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=4269 |title=Augusta Savage |publisher=Smithsonian American Art Museum |access-date=2015-06-10 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.1939nyworldsfair.com/worlds_fair/wf_tour/zone-2/the-harp.htm |title=The Harp by Augusta Savage |website=1939 NY World's Fair |access-date=2015-06-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312063758/http://www.1939nyworldsfair.com/worlds_fair/wf_tour/zone-2/the-harp.htm |archive-date=2017-03-12 |url-status=dead }}
- Concetta Scaravaglione{{Rp|157}}
- Louis Schanker{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-louis-schanker-12390 |title=Oral history interview with Louis Schanker |date=1963 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-11 }}
- Edwin Scheier
- Mary Scheier{{cite web |url=https://www.nh.gov/nharts/artsandartists/inmemory/maryscheier.html |title=Edwin & Mary Scheier |date=February 12, 2015 |publisher=New Hampshire State Council on the Arts |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Carl Schmitt
- William S. Schwartz{{Rp|147}}
- Georgette Seabrooke{{cite news |last=Pogrebin |first=Robin |date=September 16, 2012 |title=At Harlem Hospital, Murals Get a New Life |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/arts/design/murals-at-harlem-hospital-get-a-new-life.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Ben Shahn{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-ben-shahn-12500 |title=Oral history interview with Ben Shahn|date=October 3, 1965
|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-13 }}{{cite web |url=http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/rikers-island-prison-murals-east-elmhurst-ny/ |title=Rikers Island WPA Murals – East Elmhurst NY|website=The Living New Deal |publisher=Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2015-06-10 }}
- William Howard Shuster{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-will-shuster-13208#transcript |title=Oral history interview with Will Shuster, 1964 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2016-04-20 }}
- Mitchell Siporin{{cite web |url=http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/lane-tech-college-prep-high-school-teaching-arts-mural-chicago-il/ |title=Lane Tech College Prep High School Auditorium Mural – Chicago IL|website=The Living New Deal |publisher=Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2015-06-15 }}
- John French Sloan
- Joseph Solman{{cite web |url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-joseph-solman-12928
|website=Archives of American Art |title=Oral history interview with Joseph Solman |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-13 }}
- William Sommer{{Rp|151}}
- Isaac Soyer{{cite web |url=http://metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/397709 |title=Isaac Soyer, A Nickel a Shine |website=The Collection Online |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Moses Soyer{{Rp|161}}
- Raphael Soyer{{Rp|32}}
- Ralph Stackpole{{cite web |url=http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/george-washington-high-school-stackpole-mural-san-francisco-ca/ |title=George Washington High School: Stackpole Mural – San Francisco CA |website=The Living New Deal |publisher=Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Cesare Stea{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/cesare-stea-2403 |title=Cesare Stea, 1939 Mar. 2|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Walter Steinhart
- Joseph Stella{{Rp|175}}
- Harry Sternberg{{Rp|167}}
- Sakari Suzuki{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/sakari-suzuki-2411 |title=Sakari Suzuki, 1936 Dec. 2 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-14 }}
- Albert Swinden{{cite news |last=Dunlap |first=David W. |date=November 5, 2014 |title=At Future Cornell Campus, the First Step in Restoring Murals Is Finding Them|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/nyregion/at-future-cornell-campus-the-first-step-in-restoring-murals-is-finding-them.html?_r=0# |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Rufino Tamayo{{Rp|151}}
- Elizabeth Terrell{{Rp|147}}
- Lenore Thomas{{Rp|323}}
- Dox Thrash{{Rp|373}}
- Mark Tobey{{Rp|161}}
- Harry Everett Townsend
- Edward Buk Ulreich
- Charles Umlauf{{Cite web|url=https://www.umlaufsculpture.org/charles-umlauf,|title=Timeline under Charles Umlauf bio on the UMLAUF Website}}
- Jacques Van Aalten{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/jacques-van-aalten-3263 |title=Jacques Van Aalten, 1938 May 26|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Stuyvesant Van Veen{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/stuyvesant-van-veen-papers-9250 |title=Stuyvesant Van Veen papers, circa 1926-1988|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Herman Volz{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/398330 |title=Herman Roderick Volz, Lockout |website=The Collection Online |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2015-06-22 }}
- Mark Voris{{Cite web|url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-mark-voris-12722|title=Oral history interview with Mark Voris, 1965 February 11|website=www.aaa.si.edu}}
- John Augustus Walker{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010638051/ |title=Murals by John Augustus Walker on permanent display in the Museum of Mobile lobby, Mobile, Alabama |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Andrew Winter
- Jean Xceron{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/jean-xceron-2728 |title=Jean Xceron, 1942 Jan. 13|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-18 }}
- Edgar Yaeger{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/edgar-l-yaeger-papers-6415 |title=Edgar L. Yaeger papers, 1923-1989 |website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-17 }}
- Bernard Zakheim{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/california-federal-art-project-papers-9810 |title=California Federal Art Project papers, 1935-1964|website=Archives of American Art |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2015-06-23 }}{{cite news |last=Nolte |first=Carl |date=February 27, 2015 |title=UCSF to let public see trove of medical history murals|url=http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/UCSF-to-let-public-see-trove-of-medical-history-6107054.php |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=2015-06-23 }}
- Karl Zerbe{{Rp|148}}
{{div col end}}
Community Art Center program
{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = vertical
| width = 220
| image1 =Music in Paint, Jacksonville, Florida Negro Federal Gallery - NARA - 196010.tif
| alt1 =
| caption1 =Jacksonville Negro Art Center, Jacksonville, Florida
| image2 =Eleanor-Roosevelt-South-Side-Art-Center-1941.jpg
| alt2 =
| caption2 =Eleanor Roosevelt at the dedication of the South Side Community Art Center, Chicago, Illinois (May 7, 1941)
| image3 =Mason-City-Art-Center-Poster.jpg
| alt3 =
| caption3 =Poster for the opening of the Mason City Art Center, Mason City, Iowa (1941)
| image4 =Walker-Art-Center-class-1941.jpg
| alt4 =
| caption4 =Children's art class at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
| image5 =Roswell-Art-Center.jpg
| alt5 =
| caption5 =American design exhibit at the Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, New Mexico (1941)
| image6 =Harlem-Art-Center-Poster.jpg
| alt6 =
| caption6 =Poster for the Harlem Community Art Center, New York City (1938)
| image7 =Students-Harlem-Community-Art-Center-1938.jpg
| alt7 =
| caption7 =Class at the Harlem Community Art Center (January 1, 1938)
| image8 =Greensboro-Art-Center-Poster.jpg
| alt8 =
| caption8 =Poster for the open house of the Greensboro Art Center, Greensboro, North Carolina (1937)
| image9 =WPA Federal Art Center at the Municipal Auditorium in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - NARA - 196145.tif
| alt9 =
| caption9 =Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
| image10 =WPA Art Center in Gold Beach, Oregon - NARA - 196006.tif
| alt10 =
| caption10 =Curry County Art Center, Gold Beach, Oregon
}}
The first federally sponsored community art center opened in December 1936 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Index of American Design
{{main|Index of American Design}}
File:Index-of-American-Design-Illinois.jpg
{{quotation|As we study the drawings of the Index of American Design we realize that the hands that made the first two hundred years of this country's material culture expressed something more than untutored creative instinct and the rude vigor of a frontier civilization. … The Index, in bringing together thousands of particulars from various sections of the country, tells the story of American hand skills and traces intelligible patterns within that story.|Holger Cahill, national director of the Federal Art Project{{Rp|xv}}}}
The Index of American Design program of the Federal Art Project produced a pictorial survey of the crafts and decorative arts of the United States from the early colonial period to 1900. Artists working for the Index produced nearly 18,000 meticulously faithful watercolor drawings,{{Rp|226}} documenting material culture by largely anonymous artisans.{{cite book |last=Cahill |first=Holger |author-link=Holger Cahill |year=1950 |chapter=Introduction |editor1-last=Christensen |editor1-first=Erwin O. |title=The Index of American Design |url=https://archive.org/details/indexofamericand0000chri |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=The Macmillan Company |pages=ix–xvii |oclc=217678 }}{{Rp|ix}} Objects surveyed ranged from furniture, silver, glass, stoneware and textiles to tavern signs, ships's figureheads, cigar-store figures, carousel horses, toys, tools and weather vanes.{{Rp|224}}{{cite news |last=Herzberg |first=Max |date=October 15, 1950 |title=American Craftsmanship Offers Beauty and Utility |newspaper=Newark Evening News }} Photography was used only to a limited degree since artists could more accurately and effectively present the form, character, color and texture of the objects. The best drawings approach the work of such 19th-century trompe-l'œil painters as William Harnett; lesser works represent the process of artists who were given employment and expert training.{{Rp|xiv}}
"It was not a nostalgic or antiquarian enterprise," wrote historian Roger G. Kennedy. "It was initiated by modernists dedicated to abstract design, hoping to influence industrial design — thus in many ways it parallelled the founding philosophy of the Museum of Modern Art in New York."{{Rp|224}}
File:Cahill-Harlem-Community-Art-Center-1938.jpg, national director of the Federal Art Project, speaking at the Harlem Community Art Center (October 24, 1938)]]
Like all WPA programs, the Index had the primary purpose of providing employment.{{cite news |last=Jones |first=Louis C. |date=October 22, 1950 |title=Only Yesterday It Was Wooden Indians and Whittled Toys |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1950/10/22/archives/only-yesterday-it-was-wooden-indians-and-whittled-toys.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2015-10-29 }} Its function was to identify and record material of historical significance that had not been studied and was in danger of being lost. Its aim was to gather together these pictorial records into a body of material that would form the basis for organic development of American design — a usable American past accessible to artists, designers, manufacturers, museums, libraries and schools. The United States had no single comprehensive collection of authenticated historical native design comparable to those available to scholars, artists and industrial designers in Europe.{{cite news |last=Jewell |first=Edward Alden |date=March 19, 1939 |title=Saving Our Usable Past |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1939/03/19/archives/saving-our-usable-past-the-index-of-american-design-reviews-its.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2015-10-29 }}
"In one sense the Index is a kind of archaeology," wrote Holger Cahill. "It helps to correct a bias which has tended to relegate the work of the craftsman and the folk artist to the subconscious of our history where it can be recovered only by digging. In the past we have lost whole sequences out of their story, and have all but forgotten the unique contribution of hand skills in our culture."{{Rp|xv}}
The Index of American Design operated in 34 states and the District of Columbia from 1935 to 1942. It was founded by Romana Javitz, head of the Picture Collection of the New York Public Library, and textile designer Ruth Reeves.{{Rp|224}} Reeves was appointed the first national coordinator; she was succeeded by C. Adolph Glassgold (1936) and Benjamin Knotts (1940). Constance Rourke was national editor.{{Rp|xii}} The work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.{{cite web |url=http://www.nga.gov/collection/iad/history/overview.shtm |title=History |website=Index of American Design |publisher=National Gallery of Art |access-date=2015-10-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223101058/http://www.nga.gov/collection/iad/history/overview.shtm |archive-date=2015-12-23 |url-status=dead }}
The Index employed an average of 300 artists during its six years in operation.{{Rp|xiv}} One artist was Magnus S. Fossum, a longtime farmer who was compelled by the Depression to move from the Midwest to Florida. After he lost his left hand in an accident in 1934, he produced watercolor renderings for the Index, using magnifiers and drafting instruments for accuracy and precision. Fossum eventually received an insurance settlement that made it possible for him to buy another farm and leave the Federal Art Project.{{Rp|228}}
In her essay,'Picturing a Usable Past,' Virginia Tuttle Clayton, curator of the 2002-2003 exhibition, Drawing on America's Past: Folk Art, Modernism, and the Index of American Design, held at the National Gallery of Art noted that "the Index of American Design was the result of an ambitious and creative effort to furnish for the visual arts a usable past."Drawing on America's Past: Folk Art, Modernism, and the Index of American Design by Virginia Tuttle Clayton, Elizabeth Stillinger, Erika Doss, and Deborah Chotner. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2002.
File:Panel from reredos, church of sanctuario at chimayo 1943.8.6818.jpg|Panel from reredos at the Church of Sanctuario at Chimayo
File:Fly Catcher.jpg|Fly Catcher, 1937. Frank McEntee. National Gallery of Art
File:Magnus-Fossum-Index-of-American-Design-1940.jpg|Magnus Fossum copying the 1770 Boston Town Coverlet (February 1940)
File:Boston-Town-Coverlet-Magnus-Fossum-D12855.jpg|Boston Town Coverlet
Magnus Fossum (1935–1942)
File:Poke Bonnet.jpg|Poke Bonnet,Irene Lawson. Index of American Design. National Gallery of Art
File:Daguerreotype case 1943.8.9185.jpg|Daguerreotype Case Index of American Design
File:Age of chivalry circus wagon 1943.8.7735.jpg|"Age of Chivalry" Circus Wagon, c. 1938
File:Noah's ark and animals 1943.8.7806.jpg|Noah's Ark with animals
Poster Division
File:Art classes for children LCCN98510141.jpg
{{anchor|WPA Poster Division}}
The WPA Poster Division was headed by Richard Floethe.{{Cite book |last=DeNoon |first=Christopher |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/16558529 |title=Posters of the WPA |date=1987 |publisher=Wheatley Press, in association with the University of Washington Press, Seattle |others=Francis V. O'Connor |isbn=0-295-96543-6 |location=Los Angeles |oclc=16558529}} The WPA Poster Division is thought to have produced upward of 35,000 designs and printed some two million posters, originally by hand but quickly transitioning to widespread adoption of the silkscreen process.{{Cite book |last=Carter |first=Ennis |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/227919759 |title=Posters for the people : art of the WPA |date=2008 |publisher=Quirk Books |others=Christopher DeNoon, Alexander M. Peltz |isbn=978-1-59474-292-7 |location=Philadelphia, PA |oclc=227919759}} The Poster Division began in New York City and by 1938 had artists in 18 states; the Chicago unit was the second-most productive after New York. According to preeminent New Deal art historian Francis V. O’Connor, only about 2,000 surviving examples of WPA poster art are held in the nation’s library and museum print collections.
WPA Art Recovery Project
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage=210px| video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfOOhPE166k&ab_channel=GSA%28GeneralServicesAdministration%29 Returning America’s Art to America], General Services Administration{{cite web | title =Works Progress Administration (WPA) Art Recovery Project | publisher =General Services Administration | url =https://www.gsaig.gov/index.cfm/other-documents/other/works-progress-administration-wpa-art-recovery-project/ | access-date =September 10, 2015 | url-status =dead | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20150919064231/https://www.gsaig.gov/index.cfm/other-documents/other/works-progress-administration-wpa-art-recovery-project/ | archive-date =September 19, 2015 }} }}
Hundreds of thousands of artworks were commissioned under the Federal Art Project.{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2014/04/16/303718738/new-deal-treasure-government-searches-for-long-lost-art |title=New Deal Treasure: Government Searches For Long-Lost Art|last=Naylor |first=Brian |date=April 16, 2014 |website=All Things Considered |publisher=NPR |access-date=2015-06-13 }} Many of the portable works have been lost, abandoned, or given away as unauthorized gifts. As custodian of the work, which remains federal property, the General Services Administration (GSA) maintains an inventory{{cite web |url=http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/101384 |title=New Deal Artwork: GSA's Inventory Project |publisher=General Services Administration |access-date=2015-06-13 |archive-date=2017-07-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170720013035/https://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/101384 |url-status=dead }} and works with the FBI and art community to identify and recover WPA art.{{cite web |url=http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/169461 |title=New Deal Artwork: Ownership and Responsibility |publisher=General Services Administration |access-date=2015-06-13 }} In 2010, it produced a 22-minute documentary about the WPA Art Recovery Project, "Returning America’s Art to America", narrated by Charles Osgood.{{cite web |url=https://www.gsaig.gov/index.cfm/other-documents/other/works-progress-administration-wpa-art-recovery-project/ |title=Works Progress Administration (WPA) Art Recovery Project |publisher=Office of the Inspector General, General Services Administration |access-date=2015-06-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919064231/https://www.gsaig.gov/index.cfm/other-documents/other/works-progress-administration-wpa-art-recovery-project/ |archive-date=2015-09-19 }}
In July 2014, the GSA estimated that only 20,000 of the portable works have been located to date.{{cite news |last=MacFarlane |first=Scott |date=September 17, 2014 |title=Lost History: Hunting for WPA Paintings|url=http://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/Depression-Treasures-Hunting-for-WPA-Paintings-275523541.html |newspaper=NBC 4 |location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=2015-06-13 }} In 2015, GSA investigators found 122 Federal Art Project paintings in California libraries, where most had been stored and forgotten.{{cite news |last=MacFarlane |first=Scott |date=April 20, 2015 |title=Dozens of Pieces of Lost WPA Art Found in California |url=http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Dozens-of-Pieces-of-Lost-WPA-Art-Found-in-California-300716101.html |newspaper=NBC 4 |location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=2015-06-13 }}
See also
- List of Federal Art Project artists
- Section of Painting and Sculpture
- Public Works of Art Project
- Farm Security Administration which employed photographers.
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- DeNoon, Christopher. Posters of the WPA (Los Angeles: Wheatley Press, 1987).
- Grieve, Victoria. The Federal Art Project and the Creation of Middlebrow Culture (2009) [https://www.amazon.com/Federal-Project-Creation-Middlebrow-Culture/dp/025203421X/ excerpt]
- {{cite book | title=When art worked | publisher=Rizzoli |author1=Kennedy, Roger G. |author2=David Larkin | year=2009 | location=New York | isbn=978-0-8478-3089-3}}
- Kelly, Andrew, Kentucky by Design: American Culture, the Decorative Arts and the Federal Art Project's Index of American Design, University Press of Kentucky, 2015, {{ISBN|978-0-8131-5567-8}}
- Russo, Jillian. "The Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project Reconsidered." Visual Resources 34.1-2 (2018): 13-32.
External links
{{Commons category}}
- [http://livingnewdeal.org/ The Living New Deal] research project and online public archive at the University of California, Berkeley
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20150924024014/http://www.gsa.gov/graphics/admin/recovering_americas_art.swf Recovering America's Art for America] (2010), General Services Administration short documentary about efforts to recover WPA art
- [http://www.postersforthepeople.com/ Posters for the People], online archive of WPA posters
- [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaposters/wpahome.html WPA Posters collection] at the Library of Congress
- [http://www.newdealartregistry.org/Home.html New Deal Art Registry]
- [http://www.wpamurals.com/ wpamurals.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121205075827/http://www.wpamurals.com/ |date=2012-12-05 }} – links to each state, with examples of WPA art in each
- [http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/federal-art-project-photographic-division-collection-5467 Federal Art Project Photographic Division collection at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110824093907/http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2009/1934/ "1934: A New Deal for Artists"] Exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
- [http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5100/ “Art Within Reach”: Federal Art Project Community Art Centers] at George Mason University
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20111204031948/http://www.americanabstractartists.org/history/wpamurals/ WPA Murals and American Abstract Artists] at American Abstract Artists
- [http://www.louisschanker.info/wpa.htm WPA Prints and Murals in New York]
- [https://exchange.umma.umich.edu/resources/23630 Collection: "Art of the Works Progress Administration WPA"] from the University of Michigan Museum of Art
- [https://www.wnyc.org/story/wnycs-wpa-murals/ WNYC and the WPA Federal Art Project]
{{New Deal visual arts programs}}
{{Federal One}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:New Deal projects of the arts
Category:Works Progress Administration
Category:Murals in the United States
Category:1935 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Category:Government agencies established in 1935
Category:Cultural history of the United States