Works Progress Administration (WPA) Prints & Drawings
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Guglielmi: Odd Fellows Hall
•
Johnson: Lenox Avenue
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La More: Non-combattants
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Lurie: Technological Improvements
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Millman: Cartoon for Contribution
of Women to the Progress
of Mankind mural
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Pinto: Trolley Car
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Shahn: Farmers
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Siporin: Cartoon for Lincoln
and Atgeld mural
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Waters: The Old Chicken Yard
As the longtime repository for artwork created under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration/Federal Art Project, the University of Kentucky Art Museum preserves over 160 important works on paper by a diverse range of mid-century artists, including Ben Shahn, Mitchell Siporin, O. Louis Guglielmi, Ernest Fiene, Nan Lurie, Paul Weller, and many others. (In addition to the WPA holdings, the Art Museum has acquired a complementary sampling of works by photographers working in the Farm Security Administration.) The Art Museum has supplemented collection holdings with other works of the 1930s and ‘40s, when American printmaking was, in a sense, rediscovered. Latter acquisitions include works by artists of the American Scene, such as Grant Wood, and acclaimed technical innovators, such as Ralston Crawford, Claire Leighton, and Lexington residents Edward Fisk and Victor Hammer.
In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established a government funded arts program known as the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) to provide economic relief to American citizens suffering through the Great Depression. The W.P.A., with projects geared for visual and performing artists and writers, aimed to combine the creativity of artists with the values of the American people. One division of the W.P.A. was the Federal Art Project (F.A.P.), which employed painters and muralists, printmakers and sculptors, teachers and models. From 1935 through the mid-1940s, the F.A.P. created over 5,000 jobs for artists throughout the country who, in turn, produced over 225,000 works of art for the American people and taught over two million students in W.P.A. art classes in community centers and neighborhood houses.
To participate, interested artists applied to a panel of their
peers and met certain criteria of financial need and professional experience.
Based on training and interest, artists received assignments and weekly paychecks,
ranging from $23.00 to about $35.00 a week. They were free to choose their
own subjects, except for commissioned works, such as the many mural projects
that decorated post offices, schools, libraries, hospitals, airports and other
public facilities across the country. (On the University of Kentucky campus,
Memorial Hall preserves a striking mural depicting the history of Lexington
by W.P.A. artist Ann Rice O’Hanlon.)
O. LOUIS
GUGLIELMI American, born Egypt, 1906-1956
Odd Fellows Hall, 1934
Oil on canvas, 24 x 30"
Allocation from the United States Government (Federal Art Project) 1943.2.63
SARGENT
CLAUDE JOHNSON American, 1887-1967
Lenox Avenue
Lithograph on paper, 12 ½ x 8 ½" image
Allocation from the United States Government (Federal Art Project) 1943.2.72
CHET HARMON
LA MORE American, 1908-1980
Non-combattants
Lithograph on paper, 10 ½ x 14 1/8" image
Allocation from the United States Government (Federal Art Project) 1943.2.78
NAN LURIE
American, born 1910
Technological Improvements, 1937
Lithograph, 17 5/8 x 11 7/8"
Allocation from the United States Government (Federal Art Project) 1943.2.86
EDWARD
MILLMAN American, 1907-1964
Cartoon for Contribution of Women to the Progress of Mankind mural, Lucy Flower
High School, Chicago, Illinois, 1936
Charcoal on paper, 94 ½ x 71 5/8"
Allocation from the United States Government (Federal Art Project) 1943.2.33
SALVATORE
PINTO American, born Italy, 1906-1966
Trolley Car
Wood engraving on paper, 8 ½ x 6 ¾" image
Allocation from the United States Government (Federal Art Project) 1943.2.121
BEN SHAHN American, born Lithuania, 1898-1969
Farmers
Gouache on composition board, 31 x 42"
Allocation from the United States Government (Federal Art Project) 1943.2.139
MITCHELL SIPORIN American, 1910-1976
Cartoon for Lincoln and Atgeld mural, 1936
Charcoal on paper, 52 x 66"
Allocation from the United States Government (Federal Art Project) 1943.2.31
HERBERT WATERS American, 1903-1996
The Old Chicken Yard
Wood engraving on paper, 8 x 10"
Allocation from the United States Government (Federal Art Project) 1943.2.155
