WORK # PEOPLE # ART Federal Art Projects in Illinois During the Jim L. Zimmer, Administrator and Curator, ISM Lockport Gallery

he federal government’s first widespread involvement in the evolution of American art1 Walter Paul Robinson coincided with, ironically, a particularly sober period of America’s history. Following the Horseshoeing, 1937. Egg tempera Tstock market crash in October 1929, the once vital American economy collapsed. Businesses on masonite, 18½ × 23½ in. closed, fortunes were lost, and the unemployment rate skyrocketed. By 1933 more than one quarter Collection of the Illinois State of America’s labor force was unemployed. America’s burgeoning interest in art and the thousands of Museum. visual artists in the country—no matter how talented—suffered severely from the nation’s down- ward-spiraling economic climate. Fulfilling the basic needs of nourishment, clothing, and shelter overshadowed any desire to buy a painting or develop an appreciation for art. Yet out of the ashes of this troubled time, a cultural Phoenix arose in America. continued

1 The federal government initiated three other projects prior to the 1930s: the National Commission of Fine Arts in the 1850s under President Buchanan; the Council of Fine Arts proposed by Theodore Roosevelt in 1909; and President Taft’s National Commission for Fine Arts Act of May 17, 1910, which permitted donations from private sources to be used by the government for art. Although setting the stage for later patronage of the arts, these programs paled in comparison to the scope of programming during the Depression years. See Leonard D. DuBoff, Art Law (St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Company, 1984), 158–9.

THE LIVING MUSEUM • VOLUME 63 • NO. 3 • FALL 2001 3 Work People Facing a nation plagued with the hard- ships of the Great Depression, President Art Franklin D. Roosevelt offered Americans a plan that came to be known as the . As part of the New Deal, federally funded work programs, such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA), strove to give some relief to the millions of unem- ployed across the country. The WPA pro- vided approximately eight million jobs at a cost of over eleven billion dollars. But, Depression-Era besides funding the construction of thou- sands of public buildings and facilities, the Visual Art WPA sponsored work-relief programs for artists. Coupled with other national pub- Programs lic art initiatives, the WPA provided relief and hope to American artists of the 1930s Public Works of Art Project and ’40s. In retrospect, the programs also (PWAP), 1933–4 empowered artists to develop a diverse, Treasury Department work-relief program emergent American aesthetic and bridged employing artists to decorate public the gap between art and the American Raymond Breinin buildings and parks with murals and public by providing numerous tangible ex- The Dead Tree,1937. Opaque watercolor on illustration board, 2 sculpture depicting the American Scene. changes throughout the country. Illinois Harriette Crummer. Breinin worked in both the easel painting and was one of the states to benefit in incalcu- The Section of Painting and lable ways. Sculpture (The Section), 1934–43 The first federal art program was initi- mon aesthetic tastes. People could iden- Treasury Department non-relief program ated in December 1933 under the national tify and embrace what they saw in these in which artists were selected through direction of Edward Bruce. The Public works, such as Raymond Breinin’s Farms, regional and national competitions to Works of Art Project (PWAP), as it was Machinery, Industry, and Children, a large, design and decorate new federal named, was administered under the aus- three-paneled fresco completed in 1934 buildings (primarily post offices) with pices of the Treasury Department with for Skokie School in Skokie, Illinois.4 murals and sculpture; the program funds transferred from the Civil Works Today, many people first encounter maintained an emphasis on high quality Administration. Although the program WPA art through work executed under the and depicting the American Scene. lasted only six months, until its $1.25 second federal art program of the era. The million appropriation was depleted,2 it Section of Painting and Sculpture—com- The Treasury Relief Art Project provided work for unemployed artists to monly referred to as The Section—was (TRAP), 1935–9 decorate public buildings and parks. Eli- created in 1934 as a vehicle for adorning Treasury Department work-relief gibility was based not only on the artists’ new federal buildings, most notably post program, funded by a grant from the employment needs, but also on their level offices, with murals and sculpture. Also Works Progress Administration (WPA), of artistic proficiency. directed by the Treasury Department, this in which artists selected through The PWAP tested the political waters program was conceptualized differently competitions produced murals and for government art sponsorship and, per- from the PWAP. The Section was not es- sculptures to decorate those new or haps more important, established a the- tablished as a relief program. Instead, the existing federal buildings without a matic structure for artistic production that primary goal was to secure work of the budget for art. would infiltrate later projects. The “Ameri- highest quality. To this end, the adminis- can Scene,” with all its possible permuta- tration introduced regional and national Works Progress Administration’s tions, became the primary focus for PWAP competitions based on design submissions (WPA/FAP), artists, allowing them to make “a perma- for specific structures. The Section, how- 1935–43 nent record of the aspirations and achieve- ever, continued to place emphasis on the Work-relief program employing artists to ments of the American people.”3 Placed American Scene as appropriate subject create works for tax-supported institu- in very public spaces, the art offered, for matter, eschewing classical mythology or tions, to educate the public about art, the most part, representational depictions symbolism and replacing it with an em- and to conduct research; included were of the times that were palatable to com- phasis on the daily lives of the American divisions in murals, sculpture, easel people. Of all the federal programs, The paintings, graphics, photography, stained 2 Grace Overmyer, Government and the Arts (New York: Section had the best endurance, running glass, and applied arts; other compo- W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1939), 97–8. from 1934 through 1943. nents of the FAP included programs in 3 Richard D. McKinzie, The New Deal for Artists music, writing, and theater. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1973), 23. 4 The Breinin frescoes have since been covered over.

4 THE LIVING MUSEUM • VOLUME 63 • NO. 3 • FALL 2001 Work witness to the democratization of Ameri- People can art by its placement in public settings, where it is accessible to all who come into Art contact with the nontraditional “gallery walls.” About the same time The Section be- gan, another program emerged for deco- rating federal buildings, new or existing. The Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) was also organized under the Treasury Department, but this time as a work-relief program requiring a large percentage of Illinois Post personnel to be drawn from relief rolls. TRAP was shorter-lived than The Section, Offices with running from 1935 through 1939, but continued the emphasis on high quality WPA Murals through its organized competitions. TRAP’s presence in Illinois was meager compared and Sculptures with the work done under The Section. A single known example is Edgar Miller’s six # In the northern region of Illinois, limestone sculptures of animals for the The Section had a presence in post 20 × 30 in. Collection of the Illinois State Museum; gift of Jane Addams House at 1324 South mural departments of the FAP. Loomis Street in . offices at Berwyn, Brookfield, In terms of its scope, research, and out- Chicago, Downers Grove, Dwight, reach to Americans, the final Depression- East Moline, Elmhurst, Evanston, Whereas many of the other art pro- era art project garnered the largest Forest Park, Geneva, Glen Ellyn, grams centered their activity around Chi- presence. On May 6, 1935, an executive cago, evidence of The Section projects is order under the Emergency Relief Act of Homewood, Kankakee, Lemont, widely distributed throughout Illinois. 1935 created the Works Progress Admin- Marseilles, Melrose Park, Moline, 5 Between 1936 and 1943 no less than sev- istration (WPA). That same year the WPA Mt. Carroll, Mt. Morris, enty-two post offices across the state were initiated four art programs collectively Naperville, Oak Park, Oglesby, decorated with murals or sculpture. The known as Federal Project Number One, murals were predominantly horizontal in encompassing theater, writing, music, and Oregon, Park Ridge, Plano, Rock format, often placed high on the interior the visual arts. The Federal Art Project Falls, Sandwich, and Wilmette. walls of public lobbies. Their dimensions (FAP)—the visual arts division that oper- varied from Jr.’s Stage- ated from 1935 to 1943 under the national # The central part of the state, too, coach and Mail of 1937, at 4'3" × 3', in direction of Holger Cahill—shared char- the Wood River Post Office, to the sweep- acteristics with earlier federal programs but was well represented with work at ing Chicago–Epoch of a Great City by extended beyond the production of mu- Abingdon, Bushnell, Carthage, Henry Sternberg, 1938, at 7'7" × 24'2", rals or sculpture for public buildings. FAP Chillicothe, Clinton, Decatur, in the Lakeview Post Office of Chicago. artists were paid a wage to create works Galesburg, Gibson City, Hamilton, The types of materials also varied. The ma- that were made available, for the cost of jority of murals were painted in oil on can- materials, to tax-supported and partially Lewistown, Marshall, Mt. Sterling, vas, but several were executed as frescoes, tax-supported institutions such as schools, Normal, Peoria, Petersburg, by working paint directly into the wet plas- care facilities, and select nonprofit orga- Pittsfield, Rushville, Shelbyville, ter on the walls or by applying tempera nizations. New divisions were devoted to Tuscola, Virden, and White Hall. paint to dry plaster. In a radically differ- easel paintings, graphics, photography, ent application, Henry Varnum Poor used stained glass, and applied arts, in addition glazed ceramic tiles for his depictions of to murals and sculpture. Many of the re- # Farther south, murals and sculpture Carl Sandburg and Louis Sullivan in the sulting smaller works were not site-specific, were installed at Carlyle, Carmi, Chicago Uptown Post Office. Depicted in as the murals and sculpture were. This Chester, East Alton, Eldorado, works from The Section are diverse sub- permitted work to be created without a jects: pastoral scenes, local events or his- Fairfield, Flora, Gillespie, Herrin, toric figures, and references to modern Madison, McLeansboro, Nashville, technology and the American work ethic. 5 Lawrence Mankin, “Government Patronage: An O’Fallon, Salem, Staunton, Vandalia, Some of The Section works in Illinois have Historical Overview,” in Public Policy and the Arts, and Wood River. been removed, relocated, or destroyed over eds. Kevin V. Mulcahy and C. Richard Swaim (Boul- time, but the many that still remain bear der, Colo.: Westview Press, 1982), 121.

THE LIVING MUSEUM • VOLUME 63 • NO. 3 • FALL 2001 5 Work People specific destination in jects representing America’s heritage. More to be worth $50 million twenty years mind, allowing FAP than sixty artists in Illinois participated in later.8 In Illinois alone the numbers were Art artists more creative this project,6 and the Illinois pioneer settle- substantial: more than 200 murals, over freedom. ments of New Salem, Bishop Hill, and 500 sculptures, and almost 5,000 easel Although the primary goal of the FAP Galena offered valuable source materials. paintings by nearly 800 artists.9 The ul- was to provide employment to out-of- When the FAP disbanded in 1943, timate value of work created under the work artists, there were other objectives the tally of works produced nationally FAP cannot, however, be measured ad- held by the program administrators. One was staggering. The Final Report on the equately by sheer numbers or dollar was to produce a broader national art con- WPA Program: 1935–1943 indicated the amounts. Of greater worth is the sub- sciousness. Education, therefore, was an- production of 2,566 murals, 17,744 stantial artistic legacy left for us to en- other component of the FAP. The sculptures, 108,899 easel paintings, joy, analyze, and embrace as an government established art centers in ru- 11,285 designs for a quarter million fine important document in a file of Ameri- ral and urban communities around the art prints, 22,000 Index of American can history. country. These facilities, like the South Design plates, and 35,000 designs for The Illinois State Museum is fortunate Side Community Art Center in Chicago, two million posters by as many as 5,000 to hold a significant collection of works were places where children and adults artists at any one time.7 The estimated created under the FAP. Nearly five hun- could learn about art and how to make it. program expenditure was $35 million, dred paintings, prints, sculptures, photo- The centers were used to house changing culminating in a body of work estimated graphs, and examples of applied art serve exhibits of work by FAP artists through- as a permanent reminder of the artists, the out the country. Combined, these educa- 6 George J. Mavigliano and Richard A. Lawson, The aesthetics, and the conditions during the tional strategies helped bridge the gap Federal Art Project in Illinois, 1935–1943 1930s and ’40s in America. From the col- between art and the American public. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, lection we can extract the multifarious Research, too, played a role in the FAP. 1990), 186–98. translations of the American Scene by the The Index of American Design was orga- 7 Francis V. O’Connor, ed., Art for the Millions: Es- artists who were simultaneously building nized for the purpose of compiling pains- says from the 1930s by Artists and Administrators of takingly accurate paintings—referred to as the WPA Federal Art Project (Greenwich, Conn.: New 8 McKinzie, 126. plates—of decorative and utilitarian ob- York Graphic Society, 1973), 305. 9 Mavigliano and Lawson, 214.

The Illinois State Museum and the WPA tion of sculptures donated by Mr. and Mrs. Louis Cheskin in 1967 and a substantial col- eginning in 1939, the ISM sponsored The growing art department of the Museum lection of prints from the Illinois State Library B the Works Progress Administration also benefited from WPA programs. At a na- in 1983. The works illustrated here—only a (WPA) Museum Extension Project in Illinois tional level, the Federal Art Project organized fraction of the nearly five hundred pieces con- and thereby acquired workers to fulfill the traveling exhibitions of work by WPA artists tained in the ISM collection—give testament Museum’s growing human-resource needs. The from across the country. Paintings, ceramics, il- to the thousands of men and women who, un- scope of assistance received during this period lustrations for children’s stories, Pueblo Indian der federal sponsorship, were allowed to main- included the areas of taxidermy; preparatorial pottery designs, and 125 hand-painted illus- tain their creative freedom during a period of assistance; office work; plant collecting, press- trations from the Index of American Design were economic hardship. ing, mounting, and labeling; assistance to the displayed in the Museum’s art gallery be- artists, dioramists, zoologists,and paleontolo- tween 1940 and 1942. gists; label and poster making; and library ser- The WPA’s most lasting contribution to vices. In May 1940, the ISM opened the the Museum came with an allocation of art- Modern Youth Museum with the cooperation work to the permanent collection. Near the of the Central Laboratory of the WPA Mu- end of the WPA—when government at- seum Extension Project. This museum targeted tention turned to World War II—a Central for children—located in the Edward W. Payne Allocations Unit was set up in Chicago to House at Second Street and South Grand disburse moveable, undistributed artwork Avenue in Springfield—featured rotating edu- from various state projects. The Illinois State cational exhibits of dolls representing various Museum served as one of the Unit’s re- Workers making dolls for the Historic Costume Doll cultures, models of transportation modes positories for paintings, prints, sculpture, Series of Illinois Children for the ISM’s Childrens’ throughout history, and other miniature diora- photographs, ceramics, and textiles by art- Museum and School Loan Collection, ca. 1940–1, mas. In turn, WPA workers from the Central ists from not only Illinois but throughout from the Illinois Museum Extension Project Laboratory crafted duplicate exhibits for loan the country. The Museum’s WPA collec- (Statewide) report. ISM archive photograph. to rural Illinois schools, to benefit curriculua. tion was later augmented by a large selec-

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To see additional works from the ISM’s WPA Collection,

visit MuseumLink Illinois at www.museum.state.il.us/muslink (click on Art, then Depression Era Art).

Todros Geller Chicago Towers, 1937. Woodcut on paper, 12 × 9 in. Collection of the Illinois State Museum.

Joseph Vavak 3 Give, 1940. Lithograph on paper, 8 /8 × 12 in.Collection of the Illinois State Museum.

Bernece Berkman South Chicago Series #2, 1937. Opaque watercolor on paper, 20 × 30 in. Collection of the Illinois State Museum.

THE LIVING MUSEUM • VOLUME 63 • NO. 3 • FALL 2001 7 Frances Badger Autumn in Illinois, ca. 1936. Tempera on illustration board, 10¼ × 39¼ in. Mural study for the Audy Juvenile Home, Chicago. The blank area at lower left accommodated a doorway on the mural wall. Collection of the Illinois State Museum; gift of the artist.

a visual expression that was distinctly By contrast, Geller’s blocky, abstract forms on the merits of manual labor. The Ameri- American. glorify the strength of urban architecture and can worker becomes heroic, a sign of Several works in the collection celebrate exude the dynamic vibrancy of the city. strength and hope in a difficult time. In the diverse American landscape. The art- Other works glorify the American work some cases, such as Walter Paul Robinson’s ists shared glimpses of life in the ’30s and ethic. Absent in these pieces are the alle- Horseshoeing, the artist confronts us with ’40s, whether depicting a rural scene as gorical or mythological figures that domi- the attributes of grit and determination so found in Raymond Breinin’s The Dead nated earlier European-inspired public art. characteristic of rural workers. In Bernece Tree, or an urbanscape such as Todros We see, instead, the immortalization of the Berkman’s South Chicago Series #2, how- Geller’s woodcut Chicago Towers. These everyday worker—the coal miner, the ever, the convoluted composition urges us two works demonstrate the lack of con- farmer, and the homemaker are repre- to empathize with the responsibilities of formity among artists in establishing a sented with respect and admiration. Ev- an urban mother frantically looking after “WPA style.” Breinin’s depiction is paint- erywhere we see muscular torsos and her family. erly, surrealistic, and sophisticatedly silent. enlarged hands, placing special emphasis More sobering are the images of social realism, which document the economic struggles and psychological strains of the era. These artists held nothing back and used their work as a form of social protest. The tone of these works is dark, almost ominous, yet the works draw us in. The outstretched hands and vacant eyes in Joseph Vavak’s lithograph Give, for ex- ample, compel us to confront the sense of helplessness and humiliation preva- lent during the era. Some of the artists employed by the FAP chose to escape the solemn conditions and depict the American Scene in a lighter fashion than the social realists did. In these works we learn how Americans managed to escape the dark days of the Depression through recreation, play, and a few mo- ments of quiet solitude. Frances Badger’s mural study Autumn in Illinois presents an idyllic, carefree country scene. Gone are the young girls’ troubles as they chat cheer- fully by the pasture fence. Felix Ruvolo’s Morning, though more somber, captures William Schwartz his sitter’s brief, private escape before fac- Symphonic Forms #40, 1940. Oil on canvas, 30 × 40 in. Collection of the Illinois State Museum. ing the trials of the day.

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Though much of the work cre- ated for the FAP was representa- tional, artists were afforded the freedom to experiment and develop new ways of seeing the world around them. Some of the Illinois artists who had been exposed to Modernism through the 1913 Ar- mory Show in Chicago explored how the new ideas in art might in- spire their own work. Laura Slobe’s sculpture Vanity is a primary ex- ample and represents a transitional Felix Ruvolo stage of American art. The title sug- Morning, 1940. Oil on canvas, 39¾ × 29¾ in. Collection of gests traditional subject matter and the Illinois State Museum. the work is rendered in a represen- tational style, yet Picasso’s strong in- fluence on early-twentieth-century art is unmistakable. In Symphonic Forms #40, Suggested Reading William Schwartz liberated his work by dar- DeNoon, Christopher. 1987. Posters of the ing to seek the intangible through a new level WPA. Los Angeles: The Wheatly Press of abstraction. Publishers. The works in the ISM collection form Marling, Karal Ann. 1982. Wall-to-Wall only a fraction of the art created in Illi- America. Minneapolis: University of nois under federal patronage, yet they Minnesota Press. provide a fundamental sampling of Mavigliano, George J., and Richard A. noteworthy contributions within the Lawson. 1990. The Federal Art Project state. Fortunately these works have been in Illinois, 1935–1943. Carbondale: kept in the public trust for the purposes Southern Illinois University Press. of research, study, and enjoyment. Con- McDonald, William. 1969. Federal Relief versely, not all Depression-era works sur- Administration and the Arts: The Ori- vived unscathed. For various reasons, gins and Administrative History of the many were covered over, defaced, dis- Arts Project of the WPA. Columbus: carded, or destroyed when popular opin- Ohio State University Press. ion failed to acknowledge their McKinzie, Richard D. 1973. The New significance. Renewed interest in this pe- Deal for Artists. Princeton, N.J.: riod of American art, however, has recently Princeton University Press. energized efforts to reclaim WPA works. O’Connor, Francis V. 1969. Federal Sup- Many of the murals in Chicago, for in- port for the Visual Arts: The New Deal stance, have been or are undergoing ex- and Now. Greenwich, Conn.: New tensive, thoughtful conservation. The York Graphic Society. Laura Slobe artists of the ’30s and ’40s gave us an irre- ———, ed. 1972. The New Deal Art Vanity, ca. 1935. Plaster, 27½ × 11½ × placeable gift: a visual embodiment of their Projects: An Anthology of Memoirs. 10½ in. Collection of the Illinois State Museum; thoughts, their lives, their times. As we Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Insti- gift of Mr. And Mrs. Louis Cheskin. strive to honor their artistic legacy, we will tution Press. preserve a colorful chapter from our cul- ———. 1973. Art for the Millions. Green- tural heritage. k wich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society.

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