The
Great Depression (1929 – 1941) was a time in American history when the very
foundation upon which the nation was built began to teeter. Between 1929 and 1932, the average American family income
dropped by 40%, from $2,300 to $1,500. Instead of progress, survival became the
keyword. The American ideals of democracy and capitalism were
questioned, the land of opportunity had become a
nation of hardship and misfortune. That patriotic spirit which had come to
symbolize the democratic prosperity of America was covered in a shroud of
hopelessness and despair. The nation was literally starving, millions were
hungry and homeless, breadlines were miles long, people had lost hope that
tomorrow would bring signs of a brighter future. The nation was dwindling from
economic loss and despair. This was the nation that Franklin Delano Roosevelt
inherited when he took office as 32nd president of the United States
in 1933. In that year alone, 12 million American workers – ¼ of the nation’s
population – were declared unemployed. Determined to raise American spirits and
lift the nation out of its economic slump, Roosevelt prescribed his “New Deal”
Program.
The New Deal
was a series of worker relief programs established to create jobs and funnel
money directly to victims of the depression. This federal government’s “New
Deal” syllabus called for the creation of a number of programs that became
commonly known as “alphabet soup.” The WPA, CCC, TVA, NRA, FSA,
and AAA, were just a few of the numerous organizations established to bolster
the economy and the American spirit. Roosevelt realized that in order to cure
the “great Depression” plaguing the nation he had to do more than help the
economy, he had to heal the American spirit.
Thus, the federal government’s relationship with the citizens of the
United States became a personal one of aid and friendship. What good was food,
clothing, and shelter if the American spirit itself was crushed?
The Depression
Era of the 1930s, was the era of the “Common Man.” Roosevelt once declared, “Always
the heart and soul of our country will be the heart and soul of the common
man.”[1] To mend the torn souls of the common man, Roosevelt looked to the arts. For it was his belief that a visual symbol of
promise and hope would give Americans an image of a prosperous future to turn
to when hope failed and strength faltered.
In the spirit
of bringing hope to the common man and bridging the gap between art and the
American people, the New Deal sought to install images if prosperity and hope
around America. Officials initiated a series of art programs that commissioned
unemployed artists and literally brought art to the everyday American. Between
the years of 1933 and 1943 the federal government employed nearly ten thousand
artists who produced an overwhelming quantity of work, i.e. 100,000 easel
paintings, 18,000 sculptures, over 13,000 prints, and over 4,000 murals. The
New Deal proved to be the most comprehensive program of government art patronage
in American history to date. It literally changed the relationship between art
and society. Art’s elitist sphere was democratized. The New Deal essentially
bridged the gap between art and society by stitching a new democratic being out
of the two separate worlds, all the while, literally saving a generation of
artists that would have been lost to struggles of the depression.
[1] Franklin Roosevelt, Campaign Sddress at Cleveland, Ohio, November 2, 1940, Roosevelt Pubic Papers 6 (New York, 1941, 1969) 5-6.