New Deal-funded artists embraced murals as an artistic medium for democratizing art, for reaching audiences that would normally go to galleries and museum exhibitions. They also used murals as a means to portray a particularly American vision of the United States, painting commonplace, often historical, things they saw in their localities, their personal lives, and the problems and hope of the people around them.
The "American scene" aesthetic thus "reflected the optimism of the New Deal administration" (Morgan, p. 43), the idea of building "public consensus around liberal new Deal values" (Morgan, p. 45).
Social realism also uses historical and commonplace themes in art to add a component of social content and criticism, especially from the perspective of the poor and working classes. Artists working in this style created art in public spaces that exposed social, racial, and economic inequities with the goal of inspiring viewers to work for reform. Social realists believed public art had the potential to transform "America's political consciousness with regard to matters of class struggle and related campaigns for social justice" (Morgan, p. 43). Artists working in this style also took their inspiration from the Mexican muralist movement, believing that "the public medium of the mural comprised a viable vehicle for the articulation of revolutionary political messages" (Morgan, p. 45).
Contreras, Belisario R. Tradition and Innovation in New Deal Art. Lewisburg ; London: Bucknell University Press ; Associated University Presses, 1983. (N8838 .C6 1983)
Morgan, Stacy I. Rethinking Social Realism : African American Art and Literature, 1930-1953. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004. (NX504 .M67 2004)
Rung, Margaret. "Essay: Three Ways to Study New Deal Art in Chicago." Roosevelt University Center for New Deal Studies. 2016. Accessed February 02, 2016. http://www.roosevelt.edu/CAS/CentersAnd Institutes/NewDeal/HistoryFair/NewDealArt.aspx.
New Deal Art came out of and responded to three main areas:
The Depression era:
The American scene:
The Mexican mural movement (see also the "Creating the Mural" tab of this LibGuide):
Sources:
Contreras, Belisario R. Tradition and Innovation in New Deal Art. Lewisburg ; London: Bucknell University Press ; Associated University Presses, 1983. (N8838 .C6 1983)
Harris, Jonathan. Federal Art and National Culture : The Politics of Identity in New Deal America. Cambridge Studies in American Visual Culture. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. (N8838 .H37 1995)
Morgan, Stacy I. Rethinking Social Realism : African American Art and Literature, 1930-1953. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004. (NX504 .M67 2004)
There were five Federal art programs during the New Deal, 1933-1943:
The University of Kentucky Art Museum holds 150 New Deal artworks selected by Edward Rannells in 1943 from the Federal Art Project clearinghouse in Chicago, IL.
Sources:
A challenge for New Deal Art programs in general was to balance the requirement for "quality art" with the role of providing relief for destitute artists. "Quality art" was defined by the white program administrators and did not include certain kinds of art and usually did not extend to artists of color.
When the Civil Works Administration was founded in 1933, "artist" was one of the 100 professional and white-collar job classifications for relief funding. Harry Hopkins was the chief administrator. He designated over $1 million to funding what became the PWAP in December 1933. Hopkins thought of the program as a relief project for artists who needed money.
Edward Bruce, PWAP's national director, thought of the program as a way to embellish federal and state buildings with "quality" art. There were variable rates of pay, depending on the artists' "quality." In addition, only realistic, representational art and artists were funded. Abstractionists or nonrepresentational art were not given work or were subjected to censorship by PWAP administrators. According to Bruce, the representation of the "American scene" should not include anything "experimental, unconventional, or possibly titillating" (Harris, p. 25). This emphasis on the American scene as defined by Bruce discouraged other artists who worked differently and was thus inconsistent with the aim of providing every artist with relief work.
In addition, the hiring practices of New Deal art programs for artists of color was poor. "Only in New York City and Chicago were African American cultural workers able to make sizeable inroads, and even then only following major demonstrations and picketing by local groups of unionized artists. Yet, any of those African American visual artists and writers who did attain WPA employment have described its significance as nothing less than a godsend" (Morgan, p. 14) Along with a regular paycheck, participation in the WPA programs established an increased sense of community among Black cultural workers. Many were also involved in leftist political groups that included protests against mural censorship, demands for racial equality, affirmation of support for trade unions, support for passage of the federal anti lynching bill, and a shared sense of class consciousness with other unionized workers. Also, the WPA programs provided supplies. Artists could explore working in different mediums, especially relating to printing and the mass production of art.
Charles Alston, Charles White, and Hale Woodruff are African American artists who all painted their first murals funded by New Deal art programs.
Sources:
Contreras, Belisario R. Tradition and Innovation in New Deal Art. Lewisburg : London: Bucknell University Press ; Associated University Presses, 1983. (N8838 .C6 1983)
Harris, Jonathan. Federal Art and National Culture : The Politics of Identity in New Deal America. Cambridge Studies in American Visual Culture. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. (N8838 .H37 1995)
Morgan, Stacy I. Rethinking Social Realism : African American Art and Literature, 1930-1953. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004. (NX504 .M67 2004)