For the People murals exhibit in FLLAC

Sketches by Depression Era artists evoke values of New Deal

Liza Darwin Guest Writer

For the People: American Mural Drawings of the 1930s and 1940s, the new exhibit at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (FLLAC), features preliminary drawings for large murals by artists working in an unstable era of American history. The FLLAC’s interest in obtaining these pieces for Vassar College began more than 30 years ago, and now the FLLAC has over 60 early sketches in its permanent collection, about 30 of which are featured in the exhibit.

The unique range of murals, created by rarely exhibited artists, represents many different media including watercolor, charcoal, graphite, and oil. Because economic instability left most artists without private patronage or a flourishing art market, public murals in public spaces became an artist’s best business prospect.

The murals were splashed across surfaces in everyday locations such as post offices, hospitals, and schools as part of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project, a New Deal effort to support artists. The title of the exhibition corresponds with the principles of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal plan of social and economic equality. Those democratic values come through in the murals, many of which feature middle- and lower-class people working at normal tasks such as cleaning the kitchen or working in the fields. A new national identity permeated the New Deal era, and thus most of the subjects were wholly American. The murals were accessible; anyone, regardless of economic or social standing, could enjoy public art.

Similarly, many American artists moved to promote a realistic style that rejected cubism and other European influences. Part of that decision was likely rooted in a desire to connect to the common American audience and to mirror society in art.

One of the most prominent artists in the collection, James Daugherty, used a “cartoon style” defined by sharp, linear images to make the action of the murals clear. His piece, “Music: Study for Murals’ American Rhythm,” includes a group of musicians with their various instruments to celebrate the multifaceted identity of American music.

Former Vassar professor Lewis Rubenstein created murals depicting scenes of a national hunger march. Some examples of his sketches are included in the exhibition. Rubenstein, a member of the College faculty in 1939 and from 1946-1974, used his art to express concern with unemployment, hunger, and other working-class struggles.

On Tuesday, Jan. 30, Curator of Prints and Drawings Patricia Phagan will lead a curatorial tour of the collection. Poetry readings and a lecture about the exhibit will take place on Feb. 3. The readings and lecture are part of Modfest, a campus-wide celebration of art, music, dance, and poetry. For the People will show until March 11.

—Additional reporting by Mally Anderson, Arts Editor