While work of this era is sometimes called “
WPA art” the architecture and the creative arts groups of the
Works Progress Administration’s
Federal One (
Federal Art Project,
Federal Writers' Project, et al.) were only some of the New Deal agencies commissioning creative works. (Federal One’s budget at its height in 1935 was $27 million, representing 0.04% of
GDP.) were also charged with creating New Deal art. Documentary photographs for the FSA as well as the
Office of War Information and the
Resettlement Administration are also considered New Deal art. (Note: New Deal historiographic work is a separate, albeit overlapping, topic that includes “the
Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), the
Index of American Design, the establishment of the
National Archives, the historic restoration work of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the WPA’s
Historical Records Survey, and the hundreds of WPA books and writings covering the histories of states, towns, folklore, art, African Americans, American Indians, Latinos, and more.”) free-standing and bas relief
sculpture, an estimated 30,000 posters, more than 700 books and pamphlets and radio scripts, and architectural details for scores of public buildings, in a style now called
WPA Moderne. The New Deal arts programs emphasized
regionalism,
social realism,
class conflict,
proletarian interpretations and audience participation. The unstoppable collective powers of common man, contrasted to the failure of
individualism, was a favorite theme. Both the
Whitney Museum of Art and the
Museum of Modern Art created gallery shows in 1936 showcasing works by Treasury and WPA artists, respectively, that had been commissioned through the federal programs.
The New York Times reported that the Whitney show “abounds in vitality” and was especially complementary about the sculpture, including
William Zorach’s
Benjamin Franklin and
Heinz Warneke’s
Bears. == See also ==