The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...

program to fund the

visual arts The visual arts are Art#Forms, genres, media, and styles, art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as ...

in the United States. Under national director

Holger Cahill Edgar Holger Cahill (January 13, 1887 – July 8, 1960) was an Icelandic-American curator, writer, and arts administrator who served as the national director of the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration during the New Deal in th ...

, it was one of five

Federal Project Number One Federal Project Number One, also referred to as Federal One, is the collective name for a group of projects under the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal program in the United States. Of the $4.88 billion allocated by the Emergency Relief ...

projects sponsored by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, in ...

(WPA), and the largest of the New Deal art projects. It was created not as a cultural activity, but as a relief measure to employ artists and artisans to create murals, easel paintings, sculpture, graphic art, posters, photography, theatre scenic design, and arts and crafts. The WPA Federal Art Project established more than 100 community art centers throughout the country, researched and documented American design, commissioned a significant body of

public art Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically acce ...

without restriction to content or subject matter, and sustained some 10,000 artists and craft workers during the Great Depression. According to ''American Heritage'', “Something like 400,000 easel paintings, murals, prints, posters, and renderings were produced by WPA artists during the eight years of the project’s existence, virtually free of government pressure to control subject matter, interpretation, or style.”

Background

The Federal Art Project was the visual arts arm of Federal Project Number One, a program of the Works Progress Administration, which was intended to provide employment for struggling artists during the Great Depression. Funded under the

Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 The Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 was passed on April 8, 1935, as a part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. It was a large public works program that included the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Public Works Administration (PWA), t ...

, it operated from August 29, 1935, until June 30, 1943. It was created as a relief measure to employ artists and artisans to create murals, easel paintings, sculpture, graphic art, posters, photographs, Index of American Design documentation, museum and theatre scenic design, and arts and crafts. The Federal Art Project operated community art centers throughout the country where craft workers and artists worked, exhibited, and educated others. The project created more than 200,000 separate works, some of them remaining among the most significant pieces of public art in the country. The Federal Art Project's primary goals were to employ out-of-work artists and to provide art for nonfederal municipal buildings and public spaces. Artists were paid $23.60 a week; tax-supported institutions such as schools, hospitals, and public buildings paid only for materials. The work was divided into art production, art instruction, and art research. The primary output of the art-research group was the Index of American Design, a mammoth and comprehensive study of American material culture. As many as 10,000 artists were commissioned to produce work for the WPA Federal Art Project, the largest of the New Deal art projects. Three comparable but distinctly separate New Deal art projects were administered by the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and ...

: the

Public Works of Art Project The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was a New Deal program designed to employ artists that operated from 1933 to 1934. The program was headed by Edward Bruce, under the United States Treasury Department with funding from the Civil Works Admi ...

(1933–1934), the

Section of Painting and Sculpture The Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture was a New Deal art project established on October 16, 1934, and administered by the Procurement Division of the United States Department of the Treasury. Commonly known as the Section, it was rena ...

(1934–1943), and the

Treasury Relief Art Project The Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) was a New Deal arts program that commissioned visual artists to provide artistic decoration for existing Federal buildings during the Great Depression in the United States. A project of the United States De ...

(1935–1938). The WPA program made no distinction between representational and nonrepresentational art.

Abstraction Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or " concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An a ...

had not yet gained favor in the 1930s and 1940s, so was virtually unsalable. As a result, the Federal Art Project supported such iconic artists as

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a ho ...

before their work could earn them income. One particular success was the Milwaukee Handicraft Project, which started in 1935 as an experiment that employed 900 people who were classified as unemployable due to their age or disability. The project came to employ about 5,000 unskilled workers, many of them women and the long-term unemployed. Historian

John Gurda John Gurda (born 9 June 1947 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American writer and historian. Gurda's book, ''The Making of Milwaukee'', was turned into an Emmy Award-winning documentary series by Milwaukee PBS. He is an eight-time winner of the Wis ...

observed that the city's unemployment hovered at 40% in 1933. "In that year," he said, "53 percent of Milwaukee's property taxes went unpaid because people just could not afford to make the tax payments." Workers were taught bookbinding, block printing, and design, which they used to create handmade art books and children's books. They produced toys, dolls, theatre costumes, quilts, rugs, draperies, wall hangings, and furniture that were purchased by schools, hospitals, and municipal organizations for the cost of materials only. In 2014, when the Museum of Wisconsin Art mounted an exhibition of items created by the Milwaukee Handicraft Project, furniture from it was still being used at the

Milwaukee Public Library Milwaukee Public Library (MPL) is the public library system in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, consisting of a central library and 13 branches, all part of the Milwaukee County Federated Library System. MPL is the largest public library sys ...

was national director of the Federal Art Project. Other administrators included

Audrey McMahon Audrey McMahon (1898 – August 20, 1981) was the Director of the New York region of the Federal Art Project from 1935 to 1943;O'Connor, Francis V. "Audrey McMahon." in O'Connor, Francis V., ed. ''The New Deal Art Projects: An Anthology of Me ...

, director of the New York Region (New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia); Clement B. Haupers, director for Minnesota; George Godfrey Thorp (Illinois), and Robert Bruce Inverarity, director for Washington. Regional New York supervisors of the Federal Art Project have included sculptor William Ehrich (1897–1960) of the Buffalo Unit (1938–1939), project director of the

Buffalo Zoo Buffalo Zoo is a zoo was located at 300 Parkside Ave in Buffalo, New York, is the seventh oldest zoo in the United States. Each year, the Buffalo Zoo welcomes approximately 400,000 visitors and is the second largest tourist attraction in Western N ...

expansion.

Notable artists

Some 10,000 artists were commissioned to work for the Federal Art Project. Notable artists include the following: *

William Abbenseth William Abbenseth (1898–1972) was an American photographer known for his black and white photographs of San Francisco architecture. Personal life & education William Abbenseth was born in New York New York in 1898. Abbenseth describes his ph ...

Berenice Abbott Berenice Alice Abbott (July 17, 1898 – December 9, 1991) was an American photographer best known for her portraits of between-the-wars 20th century cultural figures, New York City photographs of architecture and urban design of the 1930s, and ...

* Ida York Abelman * Gertrude Abercrombie * Benjamin Abramowitz *

Abe Ajay Abraham (Abe) Ajay (1919–1998) was an American artist who was best known for his artistic contributions for ''The New Masses'' magazine during the late 1930s and early 1940s.Langa, Helen. "'At Least Half the Pages Will Consist of Pictures': New M ...

* Ivan Albright *

Maxine Albro Maxine Albro (January 20, 1893 – July 19, 1966) was an American painter, muralist, lithographer, mosaic artist, and sculptor. She was one of America's leading female artists, and one of the few women commissioned under the New Deal's Federal A ...

Charles Alston Charles Henry Alston (November 28, 1907 – April 27, 1977) was an American painter, sculptor, illustrator, muralist and teacher who lived and worked in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem. Alston was active in the Harlem Renaissance; Al ...

* Harold Ambellan * Luis Arenal * Bruce Ariss *

Victor Arnautoff Victor Mikhail Arnautoff (born Uspenovka, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire, November 11, 1896 – died Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, March 22, 1979) was a Russian-American painter and professor of art. He worked in San Francisco and ...

Sheva Ausubel Sheva Ausubel (1896–1957) was an American painter and textile artist. Life She studied at the National Academy of Design and with André Lhote. She married artist Dane Chanase (1895–1975). After a stint of about five years in Europe and P ...

Jozef Bakos Jozef Bakos (1891–1977) was an American painter best known for his Western landscapes. Bakos was one of Los Cinco Pintores, who worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Bakos studied art with John E. Thompson at the Albright Art Institute in Buffal ...

* Henry Bannarn * Belle Baranceanu * Patrociño Barela *

Will Barnet Will Barnet (May 25, 1911November 13, 2012) was an American artist known for his paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints depicting the human figure and animals, both in casual scenes of daily life and in transcendent dreamlike worlds. Biogr ...

Richmond Barthé James Richmond Barthé, also known as Richmond Barthé (January 28, 1901 – March 5, 1989) was an African-American sculptor associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Barthé is best known for his portrayal of black subjects. The focus of his arti ...

Herbert Bayer Herbert Bayer (April 5, 1900 – September 30, 1985) was an Austrian and American graphic designer, painter, photographer, sculptor, art director, environmental and interior designer, and architect. He was instrumental in the development of the ...

* William Baziotes *

Lester Beall Lester Beall (1903 – 1969) was an American graphic designer who was a leading proponent of modernist graphic design in the United States. Biography Lester Thomas Beall was born in Kansas City, Missouri. His family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, ...

Harrison Begay Harrison Begay, also known as Haashké yah Níyá (meaning "Warrior Who Walked Up to His Enemy" or "Wandering Boy") (November 15, 1914 or 1917 – August 18, 2012) was a renowned Diné (Navajo) painter, printmaker, and illustrator. Begay speciali ...

Daisy Maud Bellis Daisy Maud Bellis (February 16, 1887 – 1971) was an American painter. Bellis was a native of Waltham, Massachusetts; her birthplace has also been given as Branford, Connecticut, where she later lived. She studied at the Massachusetts College ...

* Rainey Bennett *

Aaron Berkman Aaron Berkman (23 May 1900 – 1 March 1991) was an American Social Realist and Modern painter who was involved in the Federal Art Project, which was the visual arts arm of the Great Depression-era New Deal. Although born in Hartford, Connecti ...

* Leon Bibel * Robert Blackburn *

Arnold Blanch Arnold Blanch (June 4, 1896 – October 3, 1968), was born and raised in Mantorville, Minnesota. He was an American modernist painter, etcher, illustrator, lithographer, muralist, printmaker and art teacher. Life His modernist paintings are ...

* Lucile Blanch *

Lucienne Bloch Lucienne Bloch (January 5, 1909 – March 13, 1999) was a Switzerland-born American artist. She was best known for her murals and for her association with the Mexican artist Diego Rivera, for whom she produced the only existing photographs ...

Aaron Bohrod Aaron Bohrod (21 November 1907 – 3 April 1992) was an American artist best known for his trompe-l'œil still-life paintings. Education Bohrod was born in Chicago in 1907, the son of an emigree Bessarabian-Jewish grocer. Bohrod studied at ...

Ilya Bolotowsky Ilya Bolotowsky (July 1, 1907 – November 22, 1981) was a leading early 20th-century Russian-American painter in abstract styles in New York City. His work, a search for philosophical order through visual expression, embraced cubism and geo ...

* Adele Brandeis *

Louise Brann Louise Brann (1906-1982) was an American painter who worked in the Federal Art Project during the New Deal. She created large public art installations and was a prolific portrait painter in Westchester County, New York, working between 1932 and ...

Edgar Britton Edgar Britton (1901-1982) was an American painter, muralist and sculptor born in Kearney, Nebraska. He moved to Chicago where he studied and worked with Edgar Miller. There he began painting murals, many as WPA WPA may refer to: Computing *W ...

* Manuel Bromberg * James Brooks * Selma Burke * Letterio Calapai * Samuel Cashwan *

Giorgio Cavallon Giorgio Cavallon (March 3, 1904 – December 22, 1989) was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists and a pioneer Abstract Expressionist. Biography Giorgio Cavallon was born March 3, 1904 in Sorio, a hamlet of the municipality of G ...

Daniel Celentano Daniel Celentano (1902–1980) was an American Scene artist who made realistic paintings of everyday life in New York, particularly within the Italian neighborhood of East Harlem where he lived. During the Great Depression he painted murals ...

Dane Chanase Riccardo Dane Chanase (October 21, 1894 - July 15, 1975) was an American painter and printmaker. Life Chanase was born in Palermo, Italy. He exhibited at the Salon d'Automne. He served in World War I. He married artist Sheva Ausubel (1896– ...

Fay Chong Fay Chong (1912–1973) was a Chinese Americans, Chinese-American artist and educator, well known for his printmaking and watercolor painting. He was also known for his activities as an arts organizer, arts educator and WPA-era artist. Chong was ...

Claude Clark Claude Clark (November 11, 1915 – April 21, 2001) was an American painter, printmaker and art educator. Clark's subject matter was the diaspora of African American culture, including dance scenes, street urchins, marine life, landscapes, and ...

* Max Arthur Cohn * Eldzier Cortor *

Arthur Covey Arthur Sinclair Covey (1877–1960) was an American muralist whose paintings depicted industrial workers doing their jobs. Personal life Covey was born in Leroy, Illinois on June 13, 1877 and was married to Mary Dorothea Sale from 1908 until he ...

Alfred D. Crimi Alfred D. Crimi, also known as Alfredo Crimi, (San Fratello, Italy 1900–New York City 1994), was an Italian-American painter. Crimi was born in San Fratello, Sicily, on December 1, 1900. He emigrated to the United States in 1910 and became a US ...

* Francis Criss *

Allan Crite Allan Rohan Crite (March 20, 1910 – September 6, 2007) was a Boston-based African American artist. He won several honors, such as the 350th Harvard University Anniversary Medal. Biography Crite was born in North Plainfield, New Jersey, o ...

* Robert Cronbach *

John Steuart Curry John Steuart Curry (November 14, 1897 – August 29, 1946) was an American painter whose career spanned the years from 1924 until his death. He was noted for his paintings depicting rural life in his home state, Kansas. Along with Thomas Hart B ...

* Philip Campbell Curtis *

James Daugherty James Henry Daugherty (June 1, 1889 – February 21, 1974) was an American modernist painter, muralist, children's book author and illustrator. Life Daugherty was born in Asheville, North Carolina. He later lived in Indiana, Ohio, and at the ...

* Stuart Davis * Adolf Dehn *

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter ...

Burgoyne Diller Burgoyne A. Diller (January 13, 1906 – January 30, 1965) was an American abstract painter. Many of his best-known works are characterized by orthogonal geometric forms that reflect his strong interest in the De Stijl movement and the work o ...

Isami Doi Isami Doi (May 12, 1903 – November 29, 1965) was an American printmaker and painter. Biography Doi was the first son of Japanese immigrants, born in Ewa on the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands in 1903. He moved with his family to th ...

Mabel Dwight Mabel Dwight (1875–1955) was an American artist whose lithographs showed scenes of ordinary life with humor and tolerance. Carl Zigrosser, who had studied it carefully, wrote that "Her work is imbued with pity and compassion, a sense of irony, ...

* Ruth Egri *

Fritz Eichenberg Fritz Eichenberg (October 24, 1901 – November 30, 1990) was a German-American illustrator and arts educator who worked primarily in wood engraving. His best-known works were concerned with religion, social justice and nonviolence. Biograp ...

Jacob Elshin Jacob Alexander Elshin (December 30, 1892 – 1976) was a Russian American artist. Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia,Wall text in "No Longer Forgotten: Uncovering the Stories of WPA Artists in the Northwest", Tacoma Art Museum, 2020 he served as an ...

* George Pearse Ennis * Angna Enters * Philip Evergood *

Louis Ferstadt Louis Goodman Ferstadt (7 October 1900–August 1954) was an American muralist and comics artist. Biography Louis Goodman Ferstadt was born in Berestechko in the Russian Empire on 7 October 1900. His early childhood coincided with a pogrom and ...

* Alexander Finta *

Joseph Fleck Joseph Amadeus Fleck (August 25, 1892 – April 5, 1977) was an American painter and muralist. His works include ''The Red Man of Oklahoma Sees the First Stage Coach'', in Hugo, Oklahoma, and ''First Mail Crossing Raton Pass'' and ''Unloading th ...

* Seymour Fogel *

Lily Furedi Lily Furedi (May 20, 1896 – November 1969) was a Hungarian-American artist, whose original Hungarian name was Füredi Lili. A native of Budapest, she achieved national recognition for her 1934 painting, ''The Subway'', which is a sympathetic p ...

Todros Geller Todros Geller (Yiddish: טודרוס געלער; July 1, 1889 – February, 23 1949) was a Jewish American artist and teacher best known as a master printmaker and a leading artist among Chicago's art community. Early life and education Gell ...

Aaron Gelman Aaron Gelman (November 24, 1899 – May 1970) was an American artist. He worked on oils, pastels, etchings, drawings and sculptures. Gelman was born to Jewish immigrant parents from Petah Tikva, The Ottoman Palestine (present-day Israel). H ...

* Eugenie Gershoy *

Enrico Glicenstein Enrico Glicenstein (24 May 1870 – 30 December 1942) was a Polish-born sculptor who lived in Italy and the United States. Life Glicenstein was born in Turek, Poland in 1870 and named Enoch Hendryk Glicenstein. His father was a teacher who also ...

Vincent Glinsky Vincent Glinsky (December 18, 1895 – March 19, 1975) was an American sculptor. He is especially noted for his architectural decorations. Life Vincent Glinsky was born in Russia on December 18, 1895 and emigrated to America just before World ...

Bertram Goodman Bertram A. Goodman (1904–1988) was an American artist. He studied at the School of American Sculpture, and at the Art Students League of New York in 1925. He was a member of the Federal Art Project whose murals included, ''Evolution of the Bo ...

Arshile Gorky Arshile Gorky (; born Vostanik Manoug Adoian, hy, Ոստանիկ Մանուկ Ատոյեան; April 15, 1904 – July 21, 1948) was an Armenian-American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. He spent the last years of hi ...

Harry Gottlieb Harry Gottlieb (September 23, 1895 – July 4, 1992) was an American painter, screen printer, lithographer, and educator. Biography Gottlieb was born in Bucharest, Romania on September 23, 1895. He immigrated to America in 1907, and his family s ...

Blanche Grambs Blanche Grambs (1916–2010) was an American artist who is known for her prints depicting the Great Depression, coal miners, the poor, and the unemployed. Life She was born in Beijing, China. She trained at the Art Students League in New York un ...

Morris Graves Morris Graves (August 28, 1910 – May 5, 2001) was an American painter. He was one of the earliest Modern artists from the Pacific Northwest to achieve national and international acclaim. His style, referred to by some reviewers as Mysticism, ...

* Balcomb Greene *

Marion Greenwood Marion Greenwood (April 6, 1909 – August 20, 1970) was an American Social realism, social realist artist who became popular starting in the 1920s and became renowned in both the United States and Mexico. She is most well known for her murals, ...

* Waylande Gregory *

Philip Guston Philip Guston (born Phillip Goldstein, June 27, 1913 – June 7, 1980), was a Canadian American painter, printmaker, muralist and draftsman. Early in his five decade career, muralist David Siquieros described him as one of "the most promising ...

* Irving Guyer *

Abraham Harriton Abraham Harriton was a Romanian-born American modernist artist and social realism painter in the United States. Early life and education Born in 1893 in Bucharest, then the Kingdom of Romania, Harriton studied at the National Academy of Desig ...

Marsden Hartley Marsden Hartley (January 4, 1877 – September 2, 1943) was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist. Hartley developed his painting abilities by observing Cubist artists in Paris and Berlin. Early life and education Hartley was bor ...

* Knute Heldner * August Henkel * Ralf Henricksen *

Magnus Colcord Heurlin Magnus Colcord "Rusty" Heurlin (July 5, 1895March 10, 1986) was a Swedish-American artist best known for his pastel palette and depictions of Alaskan landscapes. Background Magnus Colcord Heurlin was born in Christanstad, Skåne County, Swede ...

Hilaire Hiler Hilaire Harzberg Hiler (July 16, 1898 – January 19, 1966) was an American artist, psychologist, and color theoretician who worked in Europe and United States during the mid-20th century. At home and abroad, Hiler worked as a muralist, jazz mu ...

* Louis Hirshman *

Donal Hord Donal Hord (February 26, 1902 – June 29, 1966), an American sculptor, was born Donald Horr in Prentice, Wisconsin. Early life In 1914, Hord and his mother moved west, to Seattle, Washington. Shortly thereafter he contracted rheumatic fever, a ...

Axel Horn Axel Horn (born January 11, 1913 – March 5, 2001) was an American artist. His name is sometimes listed as "Axel Horr" as an erroneous reading of his signature on paintings; this error is reflected in the Archives of American Art, leading to co ...

Milton Horn Milton Horn (September 1, 1906 – March 29, 1995) was a Ukrainian American sculptor and artist known for work that, according to a 1957 citation of honor from the American Institute of Architects, demonstrated "the truth that architecture a ...

Allan Houser Allan Capron Houser or Haozous (June 30, 1914 – August 22, 1994) was a Chiricahua Apache sculptor, painter and book illustrator born in Oklahoma. * Eitaro Ishigaki * Edwin Boyd Johnson *

Sargent Claude Johnson Sargent Claude Johnson (October 7, 1888 – October 10, 1967) was one of the first African-American artists working in California to achieve a national reputation.

* Tom Loftin Johnson * William H. Johnson *

Leonard D. Jungwirth Leonard D. Jungwirth (October 18, 1903 –August 21, 1963 or 1964Opitz, Glenn B., Editor, ''Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers'', Apollo Book, Poughkeepsie NY, 1986) American sculptor born in Detroit, Michigan ...

Reuben Kadish Reuben Kadish (January 29, 1913 – September 20, 1992) was an American artist, specializing as a sculptor, draughtsman, muralist, painter, and printmaker. In his later career he also taught art history and sculpture in New York City. Biography ...

Sheffield Kagy Sheffield Harold Kagy (1907–1989) was an American printmaker and muralist who also worked with Everett Warner to design US Navy Military camouflage#Ship camouflage, camouflage during World War II. Biography Active as a printmaker in Cleveland ...

* Jacob Kainen * David Karfunkle *

Leon Kelly Leon Kelly (October 21, 1901 – June 28, 1982) was an American artist born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is most well known for his contributions to American Surrealism, but his work also encompassed styles such as Cubism, Social Realism, a ...

Paul Kelpe Paul Kelpe (; January 15, 1902 – December 8, 1985) was a German-born American abstract painter. His constructions integrating found objects into paintings were the first such works created in the United States and he painted two of the fi ...

Troy Kinney Troy Sylvanus Kinney (December 1, 1871 – January 29, 1938) was an American artist, etcher, and author. Troy Kinney was most notable for his works portraying dance performers, fanciful subjects, and classically styled nudes. He worked with dance ...

Georgina Klitgaard Georgina Klitgaard ( Berrian; July 3, 1889/1893 – January 12, 1976) was an American artist. * Gene Kloss *

Karl Knaths Karl Knaths (October 21, 1891 – March 9, 1971) was an American artist whose personal approach to the Cubist aesthetic led him to create paintings which, while abstract, contained readily identifiable subjects. In addition to the Cubist painter ...

Edwin B. Knutesen Edwin Bassett Knutesen (May 26, 1901 – January 23, 1961) was an American painter born in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Life and career Knutesen became a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) in 1923, where he studied under George Obe ...

Lee Krasner Lenore "Lee" Krasner (born Lena Krassner; October 27, 1908 – June 19, 1984) was an American abstract expressionist painter, with a strong speciality in collage. She was married to Jackson Pollock. Although there was much cross-pollination be ...

* Kalman Kubinyi *

Yasuo Kuniyoshi was a Japanese-American painter, photographer and printmaker. Biography Kuniyoshi was born on September 1, 1889 in Okayama, Japan. He immigrated to the United States in 1906, choosing not to attend military school in Japan. Kuniyoshi origin ...

Jacob Lawrence Jacob Armstead Lawrence (September 7, 1917 – June 9, 2000) was an American Painting, painter known for his portrayal of African-American historical subjects and contemporary life. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", although by ...

Edward Laning Edward Laning (1906–1981) was an American painter. Career Background Laning was born in 1906 in Petersburg, Illinois. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago (1923–1924) and the University of Chicago, (1925–1927). He also studied at ...

Michael Lantz Michael Lantz (born April 6, 1908 – April 1988) was an American sculptor and medalist. Lantz attended the National Academy of Design and the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, and also worked as a "handy boy" in the sculptor Lee Lawrie's New ...

Blanche Lazzell Blanche Lazzell (October 10, 1878 – June 1, 1956) was an American painter, printmaker and designer. Known especially for her white-line woodcuts, she was an early modernist American artist, bringing elements of Cubism and abstraction into he ...

* Tom Lea *

Lawrence Lebduska Lawrence H. Lebduska (1894-1966) was an American artist who became known as a housepainter. Born in Baltimore, Maryland on September 1, 1894, his parents moved to Leipzig, Germany when he was 5. While in Germany, he studied stained glass under Jose ...

* Joseph Leboit *

William Robinson Leigh William Robinson Leigh (September 23, 1866 – March 11, 1955) was an American artist and illustrator, who was known for his painted Western scenes. Biography William Robinson Leigh was born on September 23, 1866, at Maidstone Manor Farm, B ...

Julian E. Levi Julian Edwin Levi (1900–1982) was an American painter. He was a 1968 Resident of the American Academy in Rome. He should not be confused with the New York art dealer Julien Levy, who introduced Salvador Dalí to American patrons at his Juli ...

Jack Levine Jack Levine (January 3, 1915November 8, 2010) was an American Social Realist painter and printmaker best known for his satires on modern life, political corruption, and biblical narratives. Levine is considered one of the key artists of the Bost ...

* Monty Lewis *

Elba Lightfoot ''Elba Lightfoot'' (1910-1989) was an African-American artist known for her work on the Works Progress Administration (WPA) murals at Harlem Hospital. She was born in Evanston, Illinois. In 1935, together with Charles Alston, Augusta Savage (who ...

Abraham Lishinsky Abraham Lishinsky (19051982) is an American artist of the 20th Century, a painter and playwright, best known for seven murals completed for the federally funded agencies of the New Deal programs of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in the Russian Empire ...

* Michael Loew *

Thomas Gaetano LoMedico Thomas Gaetano LoMedico (July 11, 1904 – November 29, 1985) was an American sculptor and medalist.Louis Lozowick Louis Lozowick (1892 – 1973) (ukr: Луї Лозовик) was a Ukrainian-born American painter and printmaker. He is recognized as an Art Deco and Precisionist artist, and mainly produced streamline, urban-inspired monochromatic lithogr ...

Nan Lurie Nan Lurie (1906–1985) was an American printmaker and engraver (born in Odessa) known for 1930s works about racism and about the daily life of African Americans. She studied with Yasuo Kuniyoshi at the Art Students League. She married Kenneth ...

Guy Maccoy Guy Maccoy (1904 - 1981) was an American artist known for his serigraphs. Biography Maccoy was born on October 7, 1904 in Valley Falls, Kansas. He studied at the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, the Broadmoor Art Academy i ...

Stanton Macdonald-Wright Stanton Macdonald-Wright (July 8, 1890 – August 22, 1973), was a modern American artist. He was a co-founder of Synchromism, an early abstract, color-based mode of painting, which was the first American avant-garde art movement to receive inte ...

* George McNeil *

Moissaye Marans Moissaye Marans (October 11, 1902 – 1977) was an American sculptor. Life Marans immigrated in 1924. He was a member of the Federal Art Project. He taught at Brooklyn College. His sculpture ''Isaiah'' is located at the Community Church in New ...

* David Margolis *

Kyra Markham Kyra Markham (born Elaine Hyman, 1891–1967) was an actress, figurative painter and printmaker. Markham was briefly married to the architect Lloyd Wright, and five years later, married the scenographer David Stoner Gaither. She worked for the ...

* Jack Markow *

Mercedes Matter Mercedes Matter (née Carles; 1913 – December 4, 2001) was an American painter, draughtswoman, and writer. She was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists, and the Founder and Dean Emeritus of the New York Studio School. ...

Jan Matulka Jan Matulka (7 November 1890 – 25 June 1972) was a Czech-American modern artist originally from Bohemia. Matulka's style ranged from Abstract expressionism to landscapes, sometimes in the same day. He has directly influenced artists like Doro ...

Dina Melicov Dina Melicov (1905–1969) was an American sculptor, and painter who studied at The Educational Alliance Art School. She graduated from Wadleigh High School for Girls, and studied with Solon Borglum. She married Samuel Gould. Dina Melicov ...

* Hugh Mesibov *

Katherine Milhous Katherine Milhous (1894–1977) was an American artist, illustrator, and writer. She is known best as the author and illustrator of ''The Egg Tree'', which won the 1951 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration. Born into a Quaker fami ...

Jo Mora Joseph Jacinto Mora (October 22, 1876 – October 10, 1947) was a Uruguayan-born American cowboy, photographer, artist, cartoonist, illustrator, painter, muralist, sculptor, and historian who lived with the Hopi and wrote about his experiences in ...

Helmuth Naumer Helmuth Naumer Sr. (born 1907 in Reutlingen, Germany; died 16 June 1990) was an American artist. He painted subjects throughout the United States and around the world, but is best known for his works depicting landscapes of New Mexico.Flynn (1994) ...

Louise Nevelson Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. Born in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Kyiv Oblast, ...

James Michael Newell James Michael Newell (February 21, 1900 – December 1985) was a gold medaled WPA artist, best known for his fresco murals. He was born in Carnegie, Pennsylvania into a large Irish family. His birth name was James Erbin Newell but he changed ...

* Spencer Baird Nichols *

Elizabeth Olds Elizabeth Olds (December 10, 1896 – March 4, 1991) was an American artist known for her work in developing silkscreen as a fine arts medium. She was a painter and illustrator, but is primarily known as a printmaker, using silkscreen, woodcut, l ...

John Opper John Opper (1908–1994) was an American painter who transitioned from semi-abstract paintings in the late 1930s to fully abstract ones in the 1950s. He became known for his handling of color and in particular his ability to create dramatic in ...

William C. Palmer William C. Palmer (1906–1987) was an American painter who created public murals. Biography William Charles Palmer was born in 1906, in Des Moines, Iowa. * Phillip Pavia * Irene Rice Pereira *

* George Post *

Gregorio Prestopino Gregorio Prestopino (1907–1984) was an American artist. According to the art historian Irma B. Jaffe, he was "one of the major American painters who refused to reject the image, ndhas devoted his career to depicting the human condition with a ...

* Mac Raboy *

Anton Refregier Anton Refregier (March 20, 1905 – October 10, 1979) was a painter and muralist active in Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project commissions, and in teaching art. He was a Russian immigrant to the United States. Among his best-kn ...

Ad Reinhardt Adolph Dietrich Friedrich Reinhardt (December 24, 1913 – August 30, 1967) was an abstract painter active in New York for more than three decades. He was a member of the American Abstract Artists (AAA) and part of the movement centere ...

Misha Reznikoff Misha Reznikoff was an American-Ukrainian artist noted for such pictures as ''The End of the Horse – Or New Deal'' (1934) and ''The Solidity of the Road to Metaphor and Memory'' (1935).Smithsonian American Art Museum http://americanart.si.edu/s ...

Mischa Richter Mischa Richter (1910 – March 23, 2001) was an American cartoonist best known for his numerous cartoons published in ''The New Yorker'' over decades. Early life Richter was born in Kharkov, Russian Empire, where his father was the city's C ...

Diego Rivera Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...

* José de Rivera * Emanuel Glicen Romano *

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko (), born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz (russian: Ма́ркус Я́ковлевич Ротко́вич, link=no, lv, Markuss Rotkovičs, link=no; name not Anglicized until 1940; September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970), was a Lat ...

Alexander Rummler Alexander Joseph Rummler (July 25, 1867 – 1959) was an American painter best known for his work on murals and billboards. Rummler was born in Dubuque, Iowa to German immigrants Joseph and Rosalia Rummler. In 1888 Rummler traveled to Ne ...

Augusta Savage Augusta Savage (born Augusta Christine Fells; February 29, 1892 – March 27, 1962) was an American sculptor associated with the Harlem Renaissance. She was also a teacher whose studio was important to the careers of a generation of artists who ...

Concetta Scaravaglione Concetta Scaravaglione (July 9, 1900 – September 4, 1975) was an American sculptor. Her parents immigrated from Calabria, Italy, and Concetta was the youngest of nine children. She is known for her monumental figurative sculpture, her work for ...

* Louis Schanker * Edwin Scheier *

Mary Scheier Mary Scheier (née Mary Goldsmith; May 9, 1908 – May 14, 2007) was a noted American ceramicist, and the wife and artistic partner of Edwin Scheier. Career Born Mary Goldsmith in Salem, Virginia, she moved to New York City in 1925 and studied ar ...

Carl Schmitt Carl Schmitt (; 11 July 1888 – 7 April 1985) was a German jurist, political theorist, and prominent member of the Nazi Party. Schmitt wrote extensively about the effective wielding of political power. A conservative theorist, he is noted as ...

William S. Schwartz William Samuel Schwartz (February 23, 1896 – February 10, 1977) was an American artist who lived and worked in Chicago. Biography Schwartz was born in Smarhon, Smorgon in Belarus (then in the Russian Empire) to Samuel Schwartz and Tauba ...

Georgette Seabrooke Georgette Seabrooke (aka Georgette Seabrooke Powell; August 2, 1916 – December 27, 2011), was an American muralist, artist, illustrator, art therapist, non-profit chief executive and educator. She is best known for her 1936 mural, ''Recreation ...

Ben Shahn Ben Shahn (September 12, 1898 – March 14, 1969) was an American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as ''The Shape of Content''. Biography Shahn was born ...

William Howard Shuster William Howard Shuster Jr. (1893–1969) was an American painter, sculptor and teacher. Early life Shuster was born November 26, 1893, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the second of three children. Career He served in the U.S. Army duri ...

* Mitchell Siporin * John French Sloan * Joseph Solman * William Sommer * Isaac Soyer * Moses Soyer * Raphael Soyer * Ralph Stackpole * Cesare Stea * Walter Steinhart * Joseph Stella * Harry Sternberg * Sakari Suzuki * Albert Swinden * Rufino Tamayo * Elizabeth Terrell * Lenore Thomas Straus, Lenore Thomas * Dox Thrash * Mark Tobey * Harry Everett Townsend * Edward Buk Ulreich *Charles Umlauf * Jacques Van Aalten * Stuyvesant Van Veen * Herman Volz *Mark Voris * John Augustus Walker * Andrew Winter (artist), Andrew Winter * Jean Xceron * Edgar Yaeger * Bernard Zakheim * Karl Zerbe

Community Art Center program

The first federally sponsored community art center opened in December 1936 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Index of American Design

The Index of American Design program of the Federal Art Project produced a pictorial survey of the crafts and decorative arts of the United States from the Colonial history of the United States, early colonial period to 1900. Artists working for the Index produced nearly 18,000 meticulously faithful watercolor drawings, documenting material culture by largely anonymous artisans. Objects surveyed ranged from furniture, silver, glass, stoneware and textiles to tavern signs, ships's figureheads, cigar-store figures, carousel horses, toys, tools and weather vanes. Photography was used only to a limited degree since artists could more accurately and effectively present the form, character, color and texture of the objects. The best drawings approach the work of such 19th-century trompe-l'œil painters as William Harnett; lesser works represent the process of artists who were given employment and expert training. "It was not a nostalgic or antiquarian enterprise," wrote historian Roger G. Kennedy. "It was initiated by modernists dedicated to abstract design, hoping to influence industrial design — thus in many ways it parallelled the founding philosophy of the Museum of Modern Art in New York." Cahill-Harlem-Community-Art-Center-1938

Like all WPA programs, the Index had the primary purpose of providing employment. Its function was to identify and record material of historical significance that had not been studied and was in danger of being lost. Its aim was to gather together these pictorial records into a body of material that would form the basis for organic development of American design — a usable American past accessible to artists, designers, manufacturers, museums, libraries and schools. The United States had no single comprehensive collection of authenticated historical native design comparable to those available to scholars, artists and industrial designers in Europe. "In one sense the Index is a kind of archaeology," wrote Holger Cahill. "It helps to correct a bias which has tended to relegate the work of the craftsman and the folk artist to the subconscious of our history where it can be recovered only by digging. In the past we have lost whole sequences out of their story, and have all but forgotten the unique contribution of hand skills in our culture." The Index of American Design operated in 34 states and the District of Columbia from 1935 to 1942. It was founded by Romana Javitz, head of the Picture Collection of the New York Public Library, and textile designer Ruth Reeves. Reeves was appointed the first national coordinator; she was succeeded by C. Adolph Glassgold (1936) and Benjamin Knotts (1940). Constance Rourke was national editor. The work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The Index employed an average of 300 artists during its six years in operation. One artist was Magnus S. Fossum, a longtime farmer who was compelled by the Depression to move from the Midwest to Florida. After he lost his left hand in an accident in 1934, he produced watercolor renderings for the Index, using magnifiers and drafting instruments for accuracy and precision. Fossum eventually received an insurance settlement that made it possible for him to buy another farm and leave the Federal Art Project. In her essay,'Picturing a Usable Past,' Virginia Tuttle Clayton, curator of the 2002-2003 exhibition, ''Drawing on America's Past: Folk Art, Modernism, and the Index of American Design'', held at the National Gallery of Art noted that "the Index of American Design was the result of an ambitious and creative effort to furnish for the visual arts a usable past." File:Panel from reredos, church of sanctuario at chimayo 1943.8.6818.jpg, church of sanctuario at chimayo-panel from reredos File:Fly Catcher.jpg, Fly Catcher, 1937.Frank McEntee - National Gallery of Art. File:Magnus-Fossum-Index-of-American-Design-1940.jpg, Magnus Fossum copying the 1770 ''Boston Town Coverlet'' (February 1940) File:Boston-Town-Coverlet-Magnus-Fossum-D12855.jpg, ''Boston Town Coverlet''
Magnus Fossum (1935–1942) File:Poke Bonnet.jpg, Poke Bonnet,Irene Lawson. Index of American Design.National Gallery of Art File:Daguerreotype case 1943.8.9185.jpg, Daguerreotype Case Index of American Design File:Age of chivalry circus wagon 1943.8.7735.jpg, "Age of Chivalry" Circus Wagon, c. 1938 File:Noah's ark and animals 1943.8.7806.jpg, Noah's Ark with animals-Sunday toy

Poster Division

The WPA Poster Division was headed by Richard Floethe. The WPA Poster Division is thought to have produced upward of 35,000 designs and printed some two million posters, originally by hand but quickly transitioning to widespread adoption of the silkscreen process. The Poster Division began in New York City and by 1938 had artists in 18 states; the Chicago unit was the second-most productive after New York. According to preeminent New Deal art historian Francis V. O’Connor, only about 2,000 surviving examples of WPA poster art are held in the nation’s library and museum print collections.

WPA Art Recovery Project

Hundreds of thousands of artworks were commissioned under the Federal Art Project. Many of the portable works have been lost, abandoned, or given away as unauthorized gifts. As custodian of the work, which remains federal property, the General Services Administration (GSA) maintains an inventory and works with the FBI and art community to identify and recover WPA art. In 2010, it produced a 22-minute documentary about the WPA Art Recovery Project, "Returning America’s Art to America", narrated by Charles Osgood. In July 2014, the GSA estimated that only 20,000 of the portable works have been located to date. In 2015, GSA investigators found 122 Federal Art Project paintings in California libraries, where most had been stored and forgotten.

References

External links

The Living New Deal
Living New Deal, research project and online public archive at the University of California, Berkeley
''Recovering America's Art for America''
(2010), General Services Administration short documentary about efforts to recover WPA art
Posters for the People
online archive of WPA posters

at the Library of Congress
New Deal Art Registrywpamurals.com
– links to each state, with examples of WPA art in each
Federal Art Project Photographic Division collection at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art"1934: A New Deal for Artists"
Exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
“Art Within Reach”: Federal Art Project Community Art Centers
at George Mason University
WPA Murals and American Abstract Artists
at American Abstract Artists
WPA Prints and Murals in New YorkCollection: "Art of the Works Progress Administration WPA"
from the University of Michigan Museum of Art {{Authority control Federal Art Project, New Deal projects of the arts Works Progress Administration New Deal agencies American art Murals in the United States 1935 establishments in Washington, D.C. Government agencies established in 1935 Cultural history of the United States Public art in the United States Modern art 1943 disestablishments in Washington, D.C.