‘A lush, charming scene filled with tropical greenery & beautiful, gentle animals welcomes the viewer of Jungle. This is no scientific study of a foreign land. The blackbuck at the far left is the only identifiable animal… This is a FANTASY JUNGLE, devoid of biting insects & threatening predators. The painting is as delightfully impossible as popular Depression-era jungle movies like the 1932 Tarzan, The Ape Man, featuring Indian elephants alongside African chimpanzees. The frustrated ape at the center of the painting is reminiscent of the chimps in the Tarzan movies. Like the Hollywood products of its day, this painting offers viewers a colorful temporary refuge from the grim realities of Depression-era America. The parallels between canvas & film are no accident. A few years earlier [he] had painted fantastic visions on the walls of Hollywood movie palaces like the Paramount Theatre & Grauman’s Theatre. ...' https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanartmuseum/3314798286/in/pool-1934/

3 #MARCH #WorldWildlifeDay
‘Jungle’ Paul Kirtland Mays (1887-1961). Oil on canvas. #PublicWorksOfArtProject (#PWAP). 1934.
👉ALT
Smithsonian AAM (from the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service).
#wildlife #PaulKirtlandMays #TheNewDeal #GreatDepression

‘Two mountain lions gaze serenely over their home range from atop a ridge of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Artist Ila McAfee Turner brought out the gentle beauty and fleeting companionship of these big predators during the days a newly mated pair spends together. During the rest of the year the mature cats live in separate territories. Turner lived in Taos, New Mexico, but was well acquainted with this dramatic, steep-sided Colorado canyon and its animal inhabitants. She had grown up riding horseback around her family’s ranch outside the mining town of Gunnison, Colorado. In a song titled “Did You Ever Hear of Gunnison?” the artist described her childhood home as she showed these mountain lions, “way up there, in thin clean air, far away from anywhere, up on the beautiful western slope, high in the rugged Rocky Mountains.” https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanartmuseum/3266718781/in/pool-1934/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanartmuseum/with/3266718781/

3 #MARCH #WorldWildlifeDay
‘Mountain Lions’ Ila McAfee Turner (1897-1995)
👉ALT
Oil on canvas. #PublicWorksOfArtProject (#PWAP). Smithsonian AAM (from U.S. Dept. of Labor) 1934
#wildlife #WinthropDuthieTurney #TheNewDeal #GreatDepression

3 #MARCH #WorldWildlifeDay
‘Selection from Birds and Animals of the United States’
Winthrop Duthie Turney (1884-1965). Oil on canvas.
#PublicWorksOfArtProject (#PWAP). Smithsonian American Art Museum. 1934.
#wildlife #WinthropDuthieTurney #TheNewDeal #GreatDepression

'Workers scurry like busy ants to complete the University of Pittsburgh’s lofty Cathedral of Learning. The men and trucks trample the winter’s snow into mud as they labor through the frigid winter of 1933–1934 to house much-needed new classrooms. Carpenters nail timbers together to finish the scaffolding. The main part of the structure rises at the upper right, already clad in limestone blocks, while masons are still covering the lower stories of the façade... Behind the Cathedral of Learning stand the gleaming white columns of the Mellon Institute Building, which was also under construction. ... Together, the two paintings tell the story of this mighty undertaking. ... Like the Empire State Building & the Golden Gate Bridge, the Cathedral of Learning demonstrated that the...Depression could not stop Americans from accomplishing great things.'

'Finishing the #CathedralofLearning'
Harry W. Scheuch (1906-1978) Oil on canvas #PublicWorksOfArtProject (#PWAP)
Smithsonian Museum of #AmericanArt (from the US Dept. of Labor) 1934
👉ALT
#HarryScheuch #AmericanArt #TheNewDeal #GreatDepression #construction #constructionworkers

‘Artist Harry Scheuch painted the Cathedral of Learning twice for the PWAP. The first image is a close-up view of the masons at work, while this second painting is a more distant view that reveals the horde of workers involved. Together the two paintings tell the story of this mighty undertaking. The forty-two-story structure was not substantially completed until 1937, and some interior work continued for decades after that. Like the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge, the Cathedral of Learning demonstrated that the Great Depression could not stop Americans from accomplishing great things.’ images and words quoted from https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanartmuseum/3314830802/in/pool-1934/

#WINTER 1933-1934 - the #PublicWorksOfArtProject (#PWAP)
🧵👇
‘Workers on the Cathedral of Learning’
Harry W. Scheuch (1906-1978). Oil on canvas.
Smithsonian Museum of #AmericanArt (from US Dept. of Labor) 1934
👉ALT
#HarryScheuch #TheNewDeal #CathedralOfLearning #Pittsburgh

‘… without a patron [Tait] could not take on this project. When the [PWAP] gave her support in the winter of 1933–1934, the artist had her opportunity. As skaters & sledders flocked to the frozen lake & snowy slopes of Central Park, Tait joined them to sketch the winter fun. Then she retreated to her studio to make her painting. Tait showed the park in late afternoon as the Manhattan sky began to blush & the street lamps to glow, but skating & sledding were still in full swing. Once she had the landscape painted, Tait added figures in groups to create a colorful pattern against the snow and ice. The dark branches of the bare trees make a more subtle design against the white snow and mist & the golden sky. Around the ends of tree branches & in patches along the snow banks, Tait painted areas of gray into which she drew snow-covered twigs & grasses by scraping away the gray paint with the end of her paintbrush.’ - https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanartmuseum/3266718781/in/pool-1934/ [image from https://www.flickr.com/photos/ctankcycles/3684877407/]

#WINTER 1933-1934 – The #PublicWorksOfArtProject (#PWAP)
‘Skating in Central Park’ Agnes Tait (1894-1981). 1934. Oil on canvas. Smithsonian American Art Museum (from US Dept. of Labor)
👉ALT
#AgnesTait #AmericanArt #TheNewDeal #GreatDepression #iceskating #CentralPark #ThePond

#OTD 1938
🧵👇
#WhiteHouse secretariat- PART 2: the PICTURE
Photo (Harris&Ewing 2/19/1938) shows ‘Bulloch Hall’ by #FrancesLeeTurner (b. 1875), evidently 1 of the 32 FDR & 1st Lady chose to hang in the White House at the important #PublicWorksofArtProject show at the Corcoran Gallery, DC, Apr. 34.

‘… Many of these artworks have since been lost, stolen or scattered. The US General Services Administration (GSA) is charged with recovering them. The recovery of … “Fourteenth Street at Sixth Avenue,” took a convoluted path. Produced under the [PWAP], the painting hung in the Washington, DC, office of New York Senator Royal S. Copeland until his death in 1938. When Senator James Byrnes took over Senator Copeland’s office, the painting was no longer there. A congressional staffer found the unframed painting in a pile of trash next to a dumpster and took it home. When the staffer died, his sister acquired the painting. She didn’t know that the art belonged to the people of the United States until 2003. That’s when it appeared on the Antiques Road Show valued at $750,000! The GSA learned about the painting & entered into an agreement under which it is now on long-term loan to the Detroit institute of Arts.’ https://livingnewdeal.org/new-dealish-fourteenth-street-at-sixth-avenue/

The #WINTER of 1933-1934 - the #PublicWorksOfArtProject #PWAP
‘Fourteenth Street at Sixth Avenue’
John Sloan (1871–1951)
Tempera & oil emulsion on Masonite fiberboard
Public Works of Art Project
Detroit Institute of Arts. 1934.
👉ALT
#AmericanArt #TheNewDeal #cityscape

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanartmuseum/3266718781/in/pool-1934/

#WINTER (#FEBRUARY) 1933-1934 #PublicWorksofArtProject (#PWAP)
🧵👇
‘Central Park’
Carl Gustaf Nelson (1898-1988)
Oil/canvas
‘Neither the cold of winter nor the gloom of the #GreatDepression kept the children of #NewYorkCity from enjoying #CentralPark... Artist #CarlNelson had ➡️

Car accident, with Knickerbocker Company No. 5. From Victor Arnautoff’s “City Life.” Fresco, Coit Tower, 1934. https://juliacoynerrobinson.wordpress.com/category/histories/

(1896-1979), in fact, includes a fire engine speeding down a hill, and its ‘5’ can only be in honor of Knickerbocker Company No. 5 & Lillie Hitchcock Coit.
@livingnewdeal.bsky.social
#CoitTower #SanFrancisco #LillieHitchcockCoit #VictorArnautoff #PWAP #PublicWorksOfArtProject #firefighters

#AUTUMN & the #PublicWorksOfArtProject
‘Autumn Fields’
Edward Bruce (1879-1943), who himself headed #theNewDeal’s #PWAP, The #TreasurySection of Painting & Sculpture & the Treasury Relief Art project #TRAP. Oil on canvas #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum.
#AmericanArt #EdwardBruce

#AUTUMN at #Taos & the #PublicWorksOfArtProject (PWAP)
‘Fall in the Foothills’
W. Herbert Dunton (1878-1936)
Oil on canvas #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum (from the U.S. National Park Service) 1934
#AmericanArt #WHerbertDunton #TheNewDeal #PWAP #AmericanArt #autumncolors

Stewart’s in #AmericanArt:
2 by Paul Cadmus (1904-1999) for the #PublicWorksOfArtProject #PWAP 1934

*The (New) Masses* - & other left-wing periodicals - on a newsstand in 2 details from ‘City Life’, fresco in Coit Tower, San Francisco, by Victor Arnautoff, a student of Diego Rivera, part of a vast cycle commissioned by #TheNewDeal’s #PublicWorksofArtProject (#PWAP). 1934.

*The (New) Masses* - & other left-wing periodicals - on a newsstand in 2 details from ‘City Life’, fresco in Coit Tower, San Francisco, by Victor Arnautoff, a student of Diego Rivera, part of a vast cycle commissioned by #TheNewDeal’s #PublicWorksofArtProject (#PWAP). 1934.

#PRIDEMONTH
#Pride prehistory 1934
🧵👇
‘The Fleet’s In!’ #PaulCadmus (1904-1999)
Painted for the #PublicWorksofArtProject #theNewDeal’s first work relief program for artists, (12/33-6/34), it was destined for the #PWAP exhibition at DC’s #CorcoranGallery - and for controversy.

#PRIDEMONTH
#Pride prehistory 1934
🧵👇
‘The Fleet’s In!’ #PaulCadmus (1904-1999)
Painted for the #PublicWorksofArtProject #theNewDeal’s first work relief program for artists, (12/33-6/34), it was destined for the #PWAP exhibition at DC’s #CorcoranGallery - and for controversy.

Its distinctive form clearly recognizable in John Cunning’s meticulously observed ‘Manhattan Skyline’, 1934, the building had already been overtaken in 1909 (Metropolitan Life Tower) and by now several skyscrapers had surpassed it.
#PublicWorksofArtProject #PWAP #JohnCunning

‘A lush, charming scene filled with tropical greenery & beautiful, gentle animals welcomes the viewer of Jungle. This is no scientific study of a foreign land. The blackbuck at the far left is the only identifiable animal… This is a FANTASY JUNGLE, devoid of biting insects & threatening predators. The painting is as delightfully impossible as popular Depression-era jungle movies like the 1932 Tarzan, The Ape Man, featuring Indian elephants alongside African chimpanzees. The frustrated ape at the center of the painting is reminiscent of the chimps in the Tarzan movies. Like the Hollywood products of its day, this painting offers viewers a colorful temporary refuge from the grim realities of Depression-era America. The parallels between canvas & film are no accident. A few years earlier [he] had painted fantastic visions on the walls of Hollywood movie palaces like the Paramount Theatre & Grauman’s Theatre. ...' https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanartmuseum/3314798286/in/pool-1934/

3 #MARCH #WorldWildlifeDay
‘Jungle’ Paul Kirtland Mays (1887-1961). Oil on canvas. #PublicWorksOfArtProject (#PWAP). 1934.
👉ALT
Smithsonian AAM (from the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service).
#wildlife #PaulKirtlandMays #TheNewDeal #GreatDepression

‘Two mountain lions gaze serenely over their home range from atop a ridge of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Artist Ila McAfee Turner brought out the gentle beauty and fleeting companionship of these big predators during the days a newly mated pair spends together. During the rest of the year the mature cats live in separate territories. Turner lived in Taos, New Mexico, but was well acquainted with this dramatic, steep-sided Colorado canyon and its animal inhabitants. She had grown up riding horseback around her family’s ranch outside the mining town of Gunnison, Colorado. In a song titled “Did You Ever Hear of Gunnison?” the artist described her childhood home as she showed these mountain lions, “way up there, in thin clean air, far away from anywhere, up on the beautiful western slope, high in the rugged Rocky Mountains.” https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanartmuseum/3266718781/in/pool-1934/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanartmuseum/with/3266718781/

3 #MARCH #WorldWildlifeDay
‘Mountain Lions’ Ila McAfee Turner (1897-1995)
👉ALT
Oil on canvas. #PublicWorksOfArtProject (#PWAP). Smithsonian AAM (from U.S. Dept. of Labor) 1934
#wildlife #WinthropDuthieTurney #TheNewDeal #GreatDepression

3 #MARCH #WorldWildlifeDay
‘Selection from Birds and Animals of the United States’
Winthrop Duthie Turney (1884-1965). Oil on canvas.
#PublicWorksOfArtProject (#PWAP). Smithsonian American Art Museum. 1934.
#wildlife #WinthropDuthieTurney #TheNewDeal #GreatDepression

'Workers scurry like busy ants to complete the University of Pittsburgh’s lofty Cathedral of Learning. The men and trucks trample the winter’s snow into mud as they labor through the frigid winter of 1933–1934 to house much-needed new classrooms. Carpenters nail timbers together to finish the scaffolding. The main part of the structure rises at the upper right, already clad in limestone blocks, while masons are still covering the lower stories of the façade... Behind the Cathedral of Learning stand the gleaming white columns of the Mellon Institute Building, which was also under construction. ... Together, the two paintings tell the story of this mighty undertaking. ... Like the Empire State Building & the Golden Gate Bridge, the Cathedral of Learning demonstrated that the...Depression could not stop Americans from accomplishing great things.' https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanartmuseum/3267571960/in/pool-1934/

'Finishing the #CathedralofLearning'
Harry W. Scheuch (1906-1978) Oil on canvas #PublicWorksOfArtProject (#PWAP)
Smithsonian Museum of #AmericanArt (from the US Dept. of Labor) 1934
👉ALT
#HarryScheuch #AmericanArt #TheNewDeal #GreatDepression #construction #constructionworkers

‘Artist Harry Scheuch painted the Cathedral of Learning twice for the PWAP. The first image is a close-up view of the masons at work, while this second painting is a more distant view that reveals the horde of workers involved. Together the two paintings tell the story of this mighty undertaking. The forty-two-story structure was not substantially completed until 1937, and some interior work continued for decades after that. Like the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge, the Cathedral of Learning demonstrated that the Great Depression could not stop Americans from accomplishing great things.’ 2 images and words quoted from https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanartmuseum/3314830802/in/pool-1934/

#WINTER 1933-1934 - the #PublicWorksOfArtProject (#PWAP)
🧵👇
‘Workers on the Cathedral of Learning’
Harry W. Scheuch (1906-1978). Oil on canvas.
Smithsonian Museum of #AmericanArt (from US Dept. of Labor) 1934
👉ALT
#HarryScheuch #TheNewDeal #CathedralOfLearning #Pittsburgh

‘… without a patron [Tait] could not take on this project. When the [PWAP] gave her support in the winter of 1933–1934, the artist had her opportunity. As skaters & sledders flocked to the frozen lake & snowy slopes of Central Park, Tait joined them to sketch the winter fun. Then she retreated to her studio to make her painting. Tait showed the park in late afternoon as the Manhattan sky began to blush & the street lamps to glow, but skating & sledding were still in full swing. Once she had the landscape painted, Tait added figures in groups to create a colorful pattern against the snow and ice. The dark branches of the bare trees make a more subtle design against the white snow and mist & the golden sky. Around the ends of tree branches & in patches along the snow banks, Tait painted areas of gray into which she drew snow-covered twigs & grasses by scraping away the gray paint with the end of her paintbrush.’ - https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanartmuseum/3266718781/in/pool-1934/ [image from https://www.flickr.com/photos/ctankcycles/3684877407/]

#WINTER 1933-1934 – The #PublicWorksOfArtProject (#PWAP)
‘Skating in Central Park’ Agnes Tait (1894-1981). 1934. Oil on canvas. Smithsonian American Art Museum (from US Dept. of Labor)
👉ALT
#AgnesTait #AmericanArt #TheNewDeal #GreatDepression #iceskating #CentralPark #ThePond

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanartmuseum/3266718781/in/pool-1934/

#WINTER (#FEBRUARY) 1933-1934 #PublicWorksofArtProject #PWAP
🧵👇
‘Central Park’
Carl Gustaf Nelson (1898-1988)
Oil/canvas
‘Neither the cold of winter nor the gloom of the #GreatDepression kept the children of #NewYorkCity from enjoying #CentralPark... Artist #CarlNelson had ➡️

‘The farms around Miller’s home in New Hope, Pennsylvania, held the promise of more than sprouting crops. He was only one of the artists and writers attracted to Bucks County by the picturesque scenery. As the Depression pushed down real estate values, New York City theatrical luminaries such as George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart bought newly affordable Pennsylvania farms. They made an old mill into the Bucks County Playhouse. In New Hope, as in artistic centers across the country, the fresh life emerging in the spring of 1934 would be both creative and agricultural.’ https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanartmuseum/3314810482/in/pool-1934/

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor. 1934.
👉ALT
#RobertMiller #PublicWorksOfArtProject #PWAP #AmericanArt #TheNewDeal #GreatDepression #farm #farming #landscape

‘Robert Miller’s painting of a Pennsylvania farm amid snow-covered hills seems the very picture of cold rural silence. No one travels the road running past the farm. The people and livestock all shelter in the solidly built house and barn. Even the trees are under cover for winter, cut back without a leaf braving the frosty air. Yet the sky is a rich blue, and the barn and house glow in warm tones of red and yellow. The diagonal lines of the trees and buildings suggest suppressed life waiting for spring.’ https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanartmuseum/3314810482/in/pool-1934/

For the #WINTER of 1933-1934 - the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP)
🧵👇
‘Farm’
Robert A. Darrah Miller (1905-1966). Oil on canvas.
👉ALT
#RobertMiller #PublicWorksOfArtProject #PWAP #AmericanArt #TheNewDeal #GreatDepression #farm #farming #landscape

For the #WINTER of 1933-1934 - the #PublicWorksOfArtProject (#PWAP)
‘Pipe Plant’
Holland Foster (1906-1984) Oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum (from the U.S. Department of Labor). 1934.
#HollandFoster #AmericanArt #TheNewDeal #GreatDepression #landscape

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Transfer from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service.
#CecilChichester #PWAP #AmericanArt #TheNewDeal #PublicWorksOfArtProject #GreatDepression #HudsonValley #suspensionbridges #landscape