Early Mondern Era Blog

I would like to create my blog of the Early Modern Era on The influence of The Great Depression.  I remember in grade school learning first of The Great Depression, and what an impact it held on my young mind.  To this day, it still brings back memories of old black and white pictures of families suffering during The Great Depression. I would like to focus on the Artists who were affected during this period of time. The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to 1933 but the lasting affects really shaped all of the 1930's. It was during the Great Depression that the Works Progress Administration (WPA), later called the Works Projects Administration, was created by the presidential orders in May 1935.  It was with this Works Projects Administration that the Federal Art Project was formed along with other Projects to include writer, theatrics, etc.  The Federal Art Project funded by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act lasted from 1935 to 1943.  This was created to hire artists for mainly many of the public spaces needing art to adorn it. American Regionalism occurred during the Great Depression. The American Regionalism rejected the ideas and styles of the modern art influenced by Europe. Instead, the American Regionalism wanted to embrace the wholeness of American tradition and lifestyles. 

American Gothic, by Grant Wood in 1930, Oil on composition Board

American Gothic - Wikipedia

Grant Wood was one of the top American Regionalist painters of the Great Depression times.  American Regionalism was funded partially by the WPA started after the Great Depression.  The American style of painting Wood wanted to embrace depicted real life like paintings of American life.  Woods wanted to create the image of America and its ordinary life. His famous painting, American Gothic, captures this exactly.  This is the image I see and was taught of the middle American life, a farmer with his daughter, which I used to think was his wife. 

The use of modern clothing depicted in this painting is the exact suggestion of what the people of this time would wear. The apron of the lady, covering her dark colored dress, and pressed collar; along with the farmers attire, coverall jeans, the white pressed undershirt resembling that of the woman's collar, and the pitch fork seemingly cut off showing the three shinning prongs. The use of vertical lines through out his painting also associated with Gothic architecture is shown from the house, to the clothing, and the pitch fork.  His use of fine lines and outlines gives this painting a flat look to it. Although it seems flat the three prongs of the pitch fork pops out at you the most. The black colors of the clothing really make the pitch fork stand before you more than anything else in comparison to the light blue, green, and white of the house background. There is a very serious tone to this painting, the expressions in the faces are almost stern, more serious than anything.  The woman's face pops out the most even though she is not looking directly at you. It leaves you wondering what she could be afraid of or what she is thinking looking off to our right. The lighting of the sun, although the painting seems flat, makes the three prong fork stand out with its highlighting. 

 

Nighthawks, by Edward Hopper in 1942, Oil on Canvas, 

Hopper, Edward: Nighthawks (artchive.com)

Edward Hopper was also an American Regionalist who created his artwork depicting life in America and that of ordinary life. Hopper became known as one of the well known artists of the American Regionalists of the century. His use of modern Urban American painting here shows what a late night corner shop depicts. Hopper embraces the American Regionalist idea of every day American life at night time in this painting. 

His painting of Nighthawks depicts an empty, yet realistic, part of the city, looks to be on the corner of a street.  The darkness of the background and dark shops and lack of sunlight shadows or rays gives the illusion of night time, hence the name.  Three of the four figures have this stance of tiresome, like they were working all day and they are tired. The old man serving them behind the counter looks like a working man of the night, well rested, bent over, ready to jump to serve, very intent on listening with eye contact. The lack of other customers also gives us the impression of night time. The lines used in this painting gives you the impression of a corner shop, the vanishing point to the left. The lines from the facing front of the shop to the lines of the background building makes the corner shop stand out. 

This painting gives me the impression of late night caps, the stop before heading home or the last of the customers heading home after a long days work. The customers not there for social time, but rather a time to grab a last drink before heading home for another day at work.  The lack of interaction between each others, the distance between the customers, and the darkness of the background definitely depicts and every night norm of those hitting up the saloon or late night corner shop to grab a drink before heading home for the night. 

Missouri Mural, by Thomas Hart Benton 1935-36, 

Thomas Hart Benton | The Missouri Mural | PBS

Thomas Benton created the mural located in the Missouri state capitol, in the Jefferson City. He also embraced the idea of American Regionalist paintings, capturing the every day life of Americans. He was one of the top known artists of the American Regionalist movement. His mural painting was part of the WPS funded program to hire artists during the Great Depression. 

Benton captured a lot of aspects of life during this period of time. Many of his captured moments in history were down to detail, the ordinary and also the mundane. His capture of moments unfavored by many politicians were disputed, but it did not stop the mural from being changed. This capture of life, down to the lynching, could not be overlooked or erased from time.  It almost reminds me of the cave paintings of older civilizations that captured everyday life.  

This painting is very detailed in every section of the Mural, which I greatly appreciate. He incorporates every aspect of this in his mural. It is hard to position a point of time, like there is no vanishing point. You cannot read this from left to right.  He does not use shadowing to over shadow a time in life or a perspective in life, nor does he highlight an aspect of life during this time, which I like. It is almost as though I am looking at a whole timeframe in one and getting in all the aspects of time. I feel like this mural has a cave like painting to it. Many of the older cave paintings have lots of paintings through out that depicts every day life in that period. The light detail paintings give me a perspective into the lifestyle during this period. I really like the busyness of the painting, like you have to zoom in on every aspect of the painting to understand the whole mural. The shadowing detail of this art is on point, he shadow muscles and furniture to each area painted. Even though this whole painting does not come together as one, the shadowing to each character is outstanding. You can take a portion of the painting and critique it down to shading and it gives it a cartoon life look. This painting gives you the sense of motion or that sense of active energy given off by the characters in the painting.  They all show some sort of action. I feel as though you want to jump right into the painting to find your self something busy to do. 

References:

Influences on Early Modern Art | Art 200x. art200.community.uaf.edu/2009/04/24/02-influences-4/. Accessed 6 Apr. 2021.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Works Progress Administration.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 June 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Works Progress Administration.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 June 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration.

“Federal Art Project.” Wikipedia, 30 Mar. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Art_Project#Notable_artists. Accessed 6 Apr. 2021.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Jackson Pollock.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Apr. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock.

“American Regionalism Movement Overview.” The Art Story, 2018, www.theartstory.org/movement/american-regionalism/.

“Grant Wood | American Gothic (1930) | Artsy.” Www.artsy.net, www.artsy.net/artwork/grant-wood-american-gothic. Accessed 6 Apr. 2021.

“Hopper, Edward: Nighthawks.” Www.artchive.com, www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hopper/nighthwk.jpg.html. Accessed 6 Apr. 2021.

“Thomas Hart Benton | the Missouri Mural.” Www.pbs.org, www.pbs.org/video/missouri-mural-jy4fzi/. Accessed 6 Apr. 2021.

‌

‌