The Art Newspaper

Art of the Depression…

…the 1930s, that is

By Andrew Goldstein. From Armory daily edition
Published online: 04 March 2009

Collectors hoping to leave the deepening recession outside when entering the Armory Show’s new modern Pier 92 today will find themselves confronted by a number of booths showing art from the Great Depression. Works include social realist paintings and photographs created under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and other programmes initiated by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal of 1933-39.

At Forum Gallery’s booth (P92/328), dealer Robert Fishko has a selection of WPA-era works by artists such as Reginald Marsh, Ben Shahn and Philip Evergood. One piece by James Daugherty, Study for Hartford Armory Mural, around 1920, was a draft of a proposed—and never executed—painting for a WPA building; two other 1920s works by obscure WPA artists Henry Arthur Miller and Samuel Woolf depict, respectively, an anti-war rally and a political convention (both $15,000 or less).

“This art is something that people can always identify with—and maybe at this moment in a special way—and that’s why we decided to focus on that aspect of our programme,” said Fishko.

At Alan Koppel Gallery’s booth (P92/444), which also features Yayoi Kusama and Gerhard Richter, one of the signature pieces from the WPA era is on display: Dorothea Lange’s iconic photograph ­Migrant Mother, 1936, here as an exhibition print for her 1965 MoMA show (priced at $175,000). Dealer Bruce Silverstein (P92/240), who is also showing two works by Lange, said he thought the works might appeal to collectors as a not-so-funhouse mirror of the present moment.

Michael Rosenfeld (P92/237), who is showing Charles White’s Study for Chicago Public Library Mural, a beautiful and moving WPA-era painting from 1940, said the period may be especially attractive to collectors, both for its historic resonance and the abundance of works still available for purchase—or undiscovered. “People are definitely taking notice of it again and there are a lot of great works out there,” he said. Of course, just because they were made during the Depression doesn’t mean they’re cheap. White’s painting is going for $450,000.