Page 94 - Studio International - March April 1975

weakened it in 1937 no one was able to They could not be then and remain French translation (L'Art et la
transform it politically by integrating it unresolved now. Was it better, it was Revolution, Editions Sociales). Over three
into the US system and provide it with argued, to have a lot of poor art than hundred pages are devoted to art and
a stable financial structure. Stuart Davis no art at all ? The particular relevance of politics. Perhaps the author of 'Modern
(then Secretary of the American Artists the WPA to our present dilemmas lies in Mexican Painters' should read it. •
Congress) rightly stressed that the the fact that the experience was attempted Peter de Francia
Federal Arts Project should be made and the questions asked and tested in the
permanent : 'In other words' he stated context of a crisis and in terms of a
`the original intention of an emergency volume of creative production of art on a
stopgap has been changed by social sufficient scale to make the questions European Grain
dialectic into its opposite'. Predictably, relevant. Nothing is more revealing than
his words went unheeded. It has taken a the later reactions of those artists who The Great American Nude
major war, a short lived and highly commenced working or were kept alive
synthetic cultural economic boom, through WPA sponsorship. Both the A History in Art by William H. Gerdts.
Vietnam and the gathering symptoms of a New Deal for Artists and Art for the 200 pp. over z00 black and white and
major depression for Americans (and Millions underline the indebtedness of colour illustrations.
ourselves) to reactivate interest in the artists as diverse as de Kooning or Anton Phaidon. £7.50.
WPA and to study its possible Refregier, and the degree of social American Impressionism
implications. commitment found in the statements of By Richard J. Boyle. 221 pp. 175 black
The WPA was riddled with David Smith and Stuart Davis will and white and 46 colour illustrations.
contradictions and suffered from probably come as a surprise to many. New York Graphic Society.
bureaucratic rivalries between its They have little to do with formalist
different departments. Yet both in aesthetics. With the bicentenary next year there
practical and psychological terms it The plan to house the collection of will, no doubt, be lots of books like the
accomplished a great deal. It triggered off work acquired by the US government in above on the market, academic studies on
a cultural self-consciousness which a new building of the Smithsonian the Americanism of this and the
merged into a new social consciousness. Gallery in Washington was unfortunately Americanism of that. Richard Boyle's
WPA projects were instrumental in never carried out (the 1939 competition book is the first rounded consideration of
creating conditions in which entirely for the building was won by Eliel and American Impressionism and he spells
fresh attitudes came into being Eero Saarinen). Had the collection been out the purposes of his writing it in a
concerning the cultural diversity of the assembled a very different idea of the prologue : he wants to present a general
States and these reached into the grass range and diversity of American art survey of the style as practised by
roots of American popular culture. They would have been possible today. American Impressionists, and trace its
influenced all media and were the basis of A number of American painters, development in the United States;
a great deal of original work in the visual amongst them Michael Newell, Mitchell distinguish the reasons for Impressionism
arts, in photography and in the cinema. It Siporin, Lucienne Bloch and George ever evolving in general and in
was perhaps least successful in its Biddle produced murals in the 'ios that America in particular; and isolate those
support and promotion of literature. were directly motivated by political features of American Impressionism that
Great stress has been laid on the ideology and social subject material. make it specifically American. But he
sponsoring of mural painting by the WPA Their work was of variable quality and imposes his own limits on this rather
(Public Works Administration). Based on the visual language used was sometimes grandiose scenario, when he suggests that
Federal building projects such derived from late nineteenth-century his real reason for writing the book is to
commissioned work was intended to be naturalism occasionally influenced by provide a framework on which farther
funded directly from the Treasury on the Otto Dix but primarily it stemmed from study 'of what I feel is one of the most
basis of a 1% allocation of construction the Mexican muralists and notably interesting and rewarding areas in
budgets to finance mural painting and Rivera. American art history', can be built. After
sculpture. This was never fully Rivera is amongst the many artists a sentence like that it's not too difficult to
implemented. Murals in fact comprised included in Modern Mexican Painters but get better, and Mr Boyle does,
less than 30/0 of all the art projects. Yet in it cannot be said that this amiable and particularly when he discusses the
certain instances work of great quality was chatty book adds greatly to an technological contributions to the
produced either by individual artists or understanding of twentieth-century formation of the moment, an aspect (he
by co-operative efforts. Ben Shahn, Philip Mexican art. Urbane intentions and good triumphantly records) that John Rewald
Guston, Philip Evergood, Stuart Davis, will motivate the writing, reproductions completely disregarded in his celebrated
Albert Swinden and Arshile Gorky were of the work of lesser-known Mexican History. But as the chapters, and
some of the many painters who worked in artists — including Surrealists — are reiterations, increase, it becomes quite
this field. Prior to the second world war informative and the personal contact that evident that the apologetically
some 15,000 artists submitted over 40,000 the author has had with living painters rationalizing tone is not misplaced. There
sketches in 190 competitions resulting in sometimes results in illuminating simply weren't the artists. However, this
the award of approximately 1,371 anecdotes, though the period covered is still a pleasant book, sumptuously
commissions. Far less is known in Europe only goes as far as 1941. But the book illustrated and well-designed, and the
concerning the subsidiary activities of the abounds in irrelevant and inaccurate bits text, though too long, has some
WPA. By April 1940 over three quarters of information. Mention is made of interesting information. In fact it
of the 5,818 workers on the WPA worked Retablos painting but the author fails to reveals, ironically, that the Americans
on practical endeavours. These included state that there is nothing specifically did have a considerable influence on
Community Arts Centres and Art Mexican about them : they are simply ex Impressionism by inventing the
Teaching programmes for children. The voto paintings of the kind found in all collapsible tin paint-tube — thus releasing
WPA set up and sponsored the Index catholic countries. Elsewhere a page is the oil-painter from his studio — and
of American Design that employed three devoted to the technique of lithographic saving Durand-Ruel by giving him an
hundred individuals for six years, printing described as 'typical of current exhibition (and a new market) after his
operated the New York Design Mexican lithographic processes'. These downfall in the Stock Exchange collapse
Laboratory and ran Schools for poster- naturally enough turn out to be the same of 1882. As Mr Boyle points out with
design, model-making and photography. as those used elsewhere. A more serious characteristic honesty, Mary Cassatt, the
In Chicago design students were taught weakness of the book lies in the author's instigator of Durand-Ruel's salvation,
by former members of the Bauhaus deliberate evasions concerning the was of primary importance as a
faculty. Artists were assigned to Civilian political factors inextricably bound up tastemaker. She, more than anyone,
Conservation Corps Camps. South East with the work of Mexican painters in the deserves the gratitude of Americans for
and Plains Indians were employed on '20s. To dub Siqueiros and others those collections.
projects. as 'inevitably anti-communistic' (p. 36) is The 'Great American Nude' is a more
Basic questions concerning the social comical. Siqueiros's political writings and dense compilation in every way. A
role of art were not resolved by the WPA. lectures were published last year in a chronological study of the history of the