Firstly, I can’t help but think of the parallels between the era in which the WPA was created and our present day circumstances. I’m not the only one of course.
*The Arts programs put in place starting in 1935 beget the only time in American history when art became a national focus. Coupled with the influx of immigrants from all over the world, the art was bound to be rich and varied. America was and is still a very young country without the benefit of the years of artistic exploration that Europe had. We didn’t face the personal threats of Fascism and Nazi extremism that pushed people and their art to new boundaries. Some art absolutely comes from a place of creating beauty whereas much of the important work comes from trying to understand and make sense of what is happening in our world; both the physical world and the universe that lives in our minds.
The Bauhaus School was about creating an ideal spiritual society and in some sense, the experiment came to America at the right moment in history. Emigrating from countries under siege by their governments to a place where artists were encouraged and even PAID to create must have been like heaven. The influence of the Bauhaus school is so much a part of our modern landscape and is the foundation on which so much design is built. The maxim "form follows function" brings to my mind the quote about typography being invisible to the message. Coming from a technical background, I am enamored of much of the work that comes from the Bauhaus School movement. I am drawn to the idea of every line and every color being part of the overall work without elements. This work of Mohoy Nagy's reminds me of a next gen Mondrian:
Today there are WPA-like programs are being put in place to get some people back to work but other than rare instances like the Bridgeport project above, art and artists are not a much of a priority in today's society. Arts programs have been drastically cut in public schools. As a product of parents who were musicians and supported us with their art and someone with artistic aspirations of my own, it's quite insulting to have the arts treated as inconsequential by our government. As much as I would hope things would change under our current administration, sadly there are other urgent matters that require their attention.
It's wonderful that so much of the art created under the art program is available to view on line. I wasn't around in this era but even when I was an illustrator in the 80s, we created our work in much the same way as a poster like this with hand lettered text and drawings:
The WPA Mural Project is said to have been inspired by Diego Rivera and the Mexican Muralist Movement.
Diego Rivera created the Pan American Unity Mural at SF City College. The website for the mural Rivera Mural is really well done and contains a lot of information including letters, photos and memorabilia including these:
I found this slide show of a great series of WPA posters created for public libraries.
I wanted to see if there were any WPA artworks in my area. I searched on this site: http://www.wpamurals.com/ There is an art glass piece that I have actually seen by Edgar Dorsey Taylor. It is located at Herbert Hoover Jr. High School.
There were of course many other artworks created for the New Deal program including film, theater and music. You can spend (and I did) hours on line looking and listening to the fruits of WPA labors.
* Some of the info in this paragraph came from my essay question on the test but I wanted to explore it more fully.
As an aside of which I seem to have at least one every week, some of the members of one of my favorite bands, the now defunct Nickel Creek, have joined with other really great musicians to create an expandable collective band called, you guessed it, Works Progress Administration.
Give them a listen!
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