Great Depression Art Gallery

Various images to explore the impact of the Great

Depression.

How to Analyze Art What to look for…

Subject

Color usage, light and shadow

Imagery

Background

Details

Expressions and emotions

Context created

The Crash!!!

James N. Rosenberg, Oct 29 Dies Irae ("Days of Wrath"), 1929

Brooklyn Bridge Emptiness

Louis Lozowick, Brooklyn Bridge (1930)Smithsonian American Art Museum

Brooklyn Bridge is Falling Down, Falling Down, Falling Down….

AE

Banana Men at Work

Mable Dwight, Banana Men, n.d.

No Work

Blanche Grambs, No Work (1935)

Union Square

Reginald Marsh, Union Square (1933)LithographThe Univ. of Michigan Museum of Art

Bar and Grill?

Eli Jacobi, Bar and Grill (n.d.)

Along the East River

Nicolai Cikovsky, On the East River (c. 1934)

Getting Away From it All…

Twenty Cent Movie (Previous Slide)

Reginald Marsh, Twenty Cent Movie (1936)Egg tempera on board30x40in. (76.2x101.6 cm)Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Strugglin’ to Survive!

Jacob Burck, The Lord Provides (1934)

Scrap drive… AE

Lunch…

Joseph Hirsch, Lunch Hour (1942)

Night Flight…AE

American Gothic

The Art Institute of ChicagoGrant Wood, American (1891-1942) 1930Oil on beaverboardFriends of American Art CollectionAcquired in 1930

Black Sunday, 1935

After the Storm…

Harvesting the Crops

AE

Farm Trouble

AE

Protesting

NA

Lest We Forget

By Ben Shahn, Resettlement Administration, 1937Gouache and watercolor in bound volume

TRIBUTE

The New Deal (Previous Slide)

Conrad A. Albrizio, The New Deal (1934)Affresco by Conrad A. Albrizio, dedicated to President Roosevelt, placed in the auditorium of the Leonardo Da Vinci Art School (149 East 34th Street, NYC)

Back to Work…

Harry Sternberg, Builders (1935-36)

Returning to Home

NA

Working Girls Going Home

By Raphael Soyer, New York City Federal Art Project, WPA, 1937Lithograph

Bibliography

All pictures in presentation are from:http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/artgallery.htm unless otherwise noted.

American Gothic is from:http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/sisterwendy/works/ame.html

Dust Bowl pictures are public domain.

Pictures designated as “AE” are from:Dijkstra, Bram. American Expressionism: Art and Social Change 1920-1950. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 2003.

Pictures designated as “NA” are from:http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/new_deal_for_the_arts/celebrating_the_people1.html