Art & Art History ETDs

Publication Date

7-16-1974

Abstract

During the Depression the federal government of the United States launched the most extensive work relief programs in history. Between 1933 and 1943, the New Deal administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt included provisions in its relief plans to employ the nation's needy artists, who were often forgotten in the face of the needs of America's indus­trial and agrarian workers. Four major art programs were initiated during the period and administered in each of the forty-eight states.

The visual legacy of the period comprises hundreds of thousand of easel paintings and fine prints and tens of thousands works of sculpture created by artists across the nation employed by the government on various New Deal projects. This visual record is of one of the most turbulent periods in American history, one that may be considered uniquely American and, as such, cannot be ignored.

The aims of this study are to reconstruct the administrative framework and activities of the tour projects in the regional context of New Mexico and to secure a record of the works produced by New Mexican artists while employed on the projects. This study is intended as an initial archive listing available documentation concerning New Deal art activity in New Mexico and the disposition of New Deal art objects in public collections in the state. It is a catalogue of sources, objects, and activities and is not primarily intended to be a critical study of the period.

Had it not been tor federal art patronage during the New Deal years, many American artists, some of whom later met with the international fame, would not have found it possible to continue to create due to financial pressures. The art produced during the period rightfully belongs to the American people and, as one of the nation’s most important visual legacies must be preserved.

Because this visual record is continually being eroded by time and neglect, now is the time for students and historians to come to terms with the period and its importance to the stream of American art. Because the art objects and source materials have been widely dispersed across the nation, individual regionalist studies are the best approach to the complete reconstruction of the artistic activity of the period. It is hoped that this study will afford subsequent interested students of the era a point of departure to study further New Deal art Actively in its regional context.

Project Sponsors

National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution: for the research grant allowing the investigation of documents in the various governmental depositories in Washington, D.C.. The Student Research Allocations Committee, Associated Students, the University of New Mexico: for two research grants allowing extensive field research throughout the Southwestern United States.

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Art History

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

UNM Department of Art and Art History

First Committee Member (Chair)

Douglas Roland George

Second Committee Member

Howard David Rodee

Third Committee Member

Mary Elizabeth Smith

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