The Federal Art Project and the Creation of Middlebrow Culture by Victoria Grieve (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
REVIEWS 279 within a few years of reaching its previously excluded sectors of socie - height. McVeigh finds that infighting, ty. Their work is harder, as the popu - bad press, and political missteps prior lations they represent are usually to the 1924 presidential election all oppressed and thus have less access contributed to the Klan’s decline. By to financial and other resources to 1928, only a few hundred thousand fund their battles. These clear differ - members remained in the group. ences argue strongly for separate In a larger context, McVeigh’s analyses of social movements from work makes a strong case for why the right and the left. conservative and liberal social move - ments should be treated differently. HEIDI BEIRICH , who graduated from McVeigh rightly points out that con - Purdue University with a Ph.D. in servative social movements offer political science, is director of remedies for populations that have research for the Southern Poverty Law power, but believe they are being Center. She is the co-editor of Neo- challenged by changes in society. Confederacy: A Critical Introduction Because of this established power, (2008). social movements from the right tend to bring greater resources to bear on KEVIN HICKS , who graduated from their causes. Liberal social move - Purdue University with a Ph.D. in ments, on the other hand, look to English, is associate professor of Eng - expand opportunities and rights to lish at Alabama State University. The Federal Art Project and the Creation of Middlebrow Culture By Victoria Grieve (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009. Pp. x, 299. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $45.00.) Victoria Grieve’s book is a welcome in the 1930s. Historians and art his - addition to the literature on New Deal torians alike will want to read with a art programs. Surprisingly, it is also laptop nearby to see examples of art - the first sustained examination of the works by some of the lesser-known early twentieth-century emergence of artists under discussion. a middlebrow culture as it pertains to Grieve’s study arrives as a grow - the visual arts. Sparsely illustrated, ing number of scholars of American the book nonetheless complements art history have begun to examine the studies of New Deal artwork by illu - 1920s. Situated between the criticism minating post-World War I cultural of the genteel Gilded Age and that of theories that planted the seeds for the populist New Deal era, the peri - Federal Art Project (FAP) initiatives od’s art criticism resists easy catego - 280 INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY rization . Grieve aims to correct the suggested that artists make replicas of tendency among historians to see the their designs for communities who controversies of the New Deal cul - could not afford originals. She viewed tural projects in terms of “econom - the emotional and commercial acces - ics, employment, and politics” or as sibility of soldier memorials as an the result of radical cultural agendas advantage rather than a liability. Grieve in urban centers like New York City links the FAP’s support of art for the (pp. 3-6). Instead she focuses on ten - common man to these earlier strains sions rooted in conflicting ideas about of art criticism, even if it took finan - the role of art itself. While some pro - cial crisis to make them a widespread, gressive reformers embraced a con - though contested, reality. ception of fine art as the purview of The second half of the book is an educated elite, others adopted refreshing for its focus on lesser-stud - more participatory models of culture. ied New Deal art programs. Admirers Still others merged the goal of uplift (and skeptics) of Indiana’s murals with that of participation to form a may appreciate learning more about middlebrow alternative. The eco - the Index of American Design and nomic upheaval of the Great Depres - Community Art Centers. As Grieve sion finally put these new ideas about shows, anything purporting to be as art’s accessibility to the test. comprehensive as the Index may say IMH readers may well be familiar as much by what it excludes as by with the philosophies of John Dewey; what it includes (bringing to mind those with additional interest in the current art digitization projects). FAP history of American art may also know director Holger Cahill nonetheless the innovative museum exhibitions had faith that these initiatives, despite and programming undertaken by John their limitations, would stimulate Cotton Dana and Albert C. Barnes. public interest in contemporary art. However, here we see their boundary- Though not discussed here, World breaking definitions of art and their War I “liberty houses” offer another faith in its educational potential as example of how FAP programs like important precursors to the FAP’s pub - the Art Centers echoed earlier pro - lic art agenda. Likewise, Grieve’s gressive impulses by promoting the nuanced discussion of shifting cultural “active study” of art through com - prerogatives provides a lens through munity exhibitions and classes which to view other artists of the peri - (p.141). Grieve’s discussion of the Art od not discussed here. The painter Centers is especially relevant at a Cecilia Beaux, for instance, stood out moment when cultural institutions for her praise of soldier statues in struggle to nurture new audiences 1919. When most art world types and connect with local communities. hoped World War I memorials would In summary, Grieve’s book offers fresh little resemble Civil War statues, Beaux insights into the ways that bold REVIEWS 281 rethinking of art’s role in U.S. socie - lege in Brooklyn, New York. She is ty transformed cultural programming completing her first book, “American under the auspices of the FAP. Soldiers in World War I Memorial Sculpture: Picturing, Selling, and JENNIFER WINGATE is Assistant Pro - Commemorating the Doughboy.” fessor of Fine Arts at St. Francis Col - Comrades A Local History of the Black Panther Party Edited by Judson L. Jeffries (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007. Pp. 310. Illustrations, notes, index. Clothbound, $65.00; paperbound, $24.95.) Improving upon existing scholarship cast BPP members as social service that is often repetitive, focuses over - workers, not militants involved in much on “great men” and their tan - standoffs with police. This more gles with law enforcement, and holistic analysis leads to several con - privileges the history of the Oakland clusions about local branches. First, headquarters and chapters in Chica - since The Black Panther newspaper go and New York City, this collection accounted for their most reliable of essays skillfully situates seven source of revenue, offered work for rarely examined chapters of the Black many of their members, and kept Panther Party (BPP) within the larg - members connected to the commu - er scope of African American urban nity, the paper’s distribution posed a migration, civil rights activism, and threat to entities seeking to suppress the Black Freedom Struggle. In stud - the organization. Second, law enforce - ies focused on BPP branches in Los ment’s active opposition to the BPP Angeles, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Mil - financially crippled most branches, waukee, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and as members struggled to pay legal fees Winston-Salem, Jeffries and his col - for fighting arrests, to replace dam - laborators uncover the forces leading aged property, and to recoup their to the establishment of local chapters, physical health. Third, college and the mobilization of rank-and-file high school students constituted a members, the implementation of greater percentage of the membership community programs, and the impact than other demographics in most of FBI surveillance and counterintel - chapters. Fourth, the opportunism of ligence efforts on the growth and members who were informants or development of each branch. who were merely interested in the Utilizing archival materials and cachet of being affiliated with the BPP interviews, the essays in Comrades eroded chapters from within. Finally.