Editor's note: The Springfield Museums provided source material to Resource Library for the following article or essay. If you have questions or comments regarding the source material, please contact the Springfield Museums directly through either this phone number or web address:



 

WPA Artists in Print

September 28, 2010 - March 27, 2011

 

Prints by American artists who worked during the Great Depression are on view September 28th, 2010 through March 27th, 2011, at the Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts in the exhibition WPA Artists in Print. (right: Howard Norton Cook, American, 1901-1980, Fiesta, 1933, Etching. Gift of the Springfield Union Subscribers 34.D05)

Prints by the noted artists Childe Hassam, Howard Cook, Lawrence Kupferman and Reginald Marsh, many of which have not been exhibited before, are included in the show.

The artists received support from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal program which provided economic opportunities during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal. The Federal Art Project, in operation from 1935-1943, was the visual arts arm of the program. It provided employment for many out-of-work artists who created murals, posters, paintings and prints which are now considered to be significant works of public art.

Many WPA murals were created for government agencies such as post offices and administrative buildings. Paintings and works on paper were later disseminated to museums. The WPA program led to the establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

Artist biographies

Howard Cook
American, 1901-1980
Springfield, Massachusetts, native Howard Cook began his career by earning a $500 scholarship that gave him the opportunity to study at the Art Students League in New York City. This experience led to more travel, and eventually the artist studied in Europe and in the Southwest. Cook worked for many years mastering each of the major mediums: etching, aquatint, woodcut, wood engraving, collage and painting. His illustrative style, strong sense of design and energetic compositions are evident in the works on view.
 
Lawrence Kupferman
American, 1909-1982
Boston artist, Lawrence Kupferman studied at the Boston Museum School for several years before becoming an instructor at the Massachusetts College of Art (1941-1970). During the 1930s, Kupferman was employed by the Works Progress Administration, making a series of etchings and dry points, mostly of the facades of buildings. His style changed completely in the 1940s, as he became political and expressionist. Later Kupferman returned to making prints of buildings as he had in his early years.
 
Childe Hassam
American, 1859-1935
Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Childe Hassam became one of America's most noted Impressionist painters. Hassam began his artistic career as a commercial illustrator and watercolorist in Boston, but he soon chose to travel and study drawing and painting in Europe. Upon his return, the artist settled in Manhattan, where he worked to refine his artistic style. Throughout his career, Hassam explored subjects such as New York street scenes, New England landscapes, genre scenes and, during World War I, his famed series of flag paintings.
 
The artist remained influential and prolific and helped to found the Ten American Painters in 1898, a group of artists who withdrew from the Society of American Artists in order to show their work in small, non-juried exhibitions held annually from 1898 until 1918.
 
Reginald Marsh
American, 1898-1954
An urban realist painter of New York City genre scenes, Reginald Marsh devoted his career to depicting people engaged in everyday life activities including bowery bums, vulgar party goers and working class men and women. In the 1930s Marsh devoted much of his time to printmaking, completing about 236 etchings, lithographs, and engravings. Born in Paris to American-born parents, Marsh's family settled in New Jersey in 1900 and later in New Rochelle, New York. After graduating from Yale University, he worked as a free-lance illustrator in New York City for the Daily News and The New Yorker and studied at the Art Students League.
 
Marsh briefly traveled to Europe then returned to New York to pursue his sympathetic depiction of rogue subjects. In the 1930s, he created murals for the WPA and was elected a full Academician to the National Academy of Design several years later.

Wall text from the exhibition

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a federal program initiated by the United States government to provide economic opportunities during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal. The Federal Art Project, in operation from 1935-1943, was the visual arts arm of the program. It provided employment opportunities for many out-of-work artists who created murals, posters, paintings and prints which are now considered to be significant works of public art. The program also included the creation of community art centers with art classes and lectures that spawned a new appreciation for American art while providing much-needed jobs.
 
Many WPA murals were placed in or created for government agencies such as post offices and administrative buildings. Paintings and works on paper were later disseminated to museums. The D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts is home to WPA works by several noted American artists represented in this exhibition: Howard Cook, Childe Hassam, Lawrence Kupferman and Reginald Marsh. The program was successful on many levels and led to the establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts, an independent agency of the United States government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence.


Checklist

To view the checklist from the exhibition please click here.

 

Additional images

To view additional images from the exhibition please click here.


Editor's note: RL readers may also enjoy the following:

and biographical information on artists cited in this article in America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.

Read more articles and essays concerning this institutional source by visiting the sub-index page for the Springfield Museums in Resource Library.


Search Resource Library for thousands of articles and essays on American art.

Copyright 2010 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights reserved.