''Art Front'' was an American

art magazine An art magazine is a publication that focuses on the topic of art. They can be in printed form, found online or both and can be aimed at different audiences which includes galleries, art buyers, amateur or professional artists and the general publi ...

published by the

Artists Union The Artists Union or Artists' Union was a short-lived union of artists in New York in the years of the Great Depression. It was influential in the establishment of both the Public Works of Art Project in December 1933 and the Federal Art Proje ...

in New York, initially as a joint project with the Artists' Committee of Action. Twenty-five issues appeared between November 1934 and December 1937.

History

The Artists' Committee of Action formed early in 1934 to protest the destruction by

Nelson Rockefeller Nelson Aldrich "Rocky" Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979) was the 41st vice president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford. He was also the 49th governor of New York, serving from 1959 to 197 ...

of Diego Rivera's mural ''Man at the Crossroads''; Hugo Gellert, Stuart Davis (painter), Stuart Davis, Zoltan Hecht and Lionel S. Reiss were among the leaders. In the autumn of 1934 Herman Baron, the director of the American Contemporary Art gallery, was asked to join them; he offered to publish a bulletin for the group, similar to those he had previously issued through his gallery. Gellert suggested to the

that they should collaborate on the project. The name ''Art Front'' was proposed by Herbert Kruckman. The first issue appeared in November 1934. Baron was managing editor, with an editorial committee of sixteen, eight from each of the partner groups. Apart from Gellert, Davis and Hecht, those from the Artists' Committee of Action were Hilda Abel, Harold Baumbach, Abraham Harriton, Rosa Pringle and Jennings Tofel, while those from the Artists Union were Boris Gorelick, Katherine Gridley, Ethel Olenikov, Robert Jonas, Kruckman, Michael Loew, C. Mactarian and Max Spivak. Although initially a joint project of the two groups, the magazine was by no later than April 1935 describing itself as the official publication of the Artists Union; the logo of the Artists' Committee remained on the masthead (American publishing), masthead until January 1935. Stuart Davis replaced Baron as editor at some time before November 1935; he was replaced by Joseph Solman in March 1936, followed by Clarence Weinstock in January 1937. The last issue was published in December of that year.

Content

The magazine contained illustrations of works of art, announcements of events involving the Artists' Union, items of news, reviews of art publications and shows, and articles on a wide range of topics by figures of the New York arts world of the time. Among these were the artists Gwendolyn Bennett, Stuart Davis, Fritz Eichenberg, Philip Evergood, Balcomb Greene, Jacob Kainen, Chet La More, Fernand Léger, Louis Lozowick, Isamu Noguchi, James Porter (artist), James Porter, Joseph Solman, Moses Soyer, Moses and Raphael Soyer, Charmion von Wiegand, Lynd Ward and Max Weber (artist), Max Weber. Among the other contributors were Irwin Edman, F.D. Klingender, Elizabeth McCausland, William Phillips (editor), William Phillips, Samuel Putnam, Kenneth Rexroth, Harold Rosenberg and Meyer Schapiro.

History

Content

References

Further reading