For this week's blog, I will be showing three different art pieces that is influenced by The Great Depression. As we know The Great Depression was one of the worse events that has ever happened in American History and many outcomes that comes with it is what made things harder, for the people of America, to live. To help put "light" in this depressing times, President Franklin Roosevelt has created the "Works Progress Administration"
Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889-1975), "Approaching Storm", 1940 Lithograph, 113/4 x 16 in. (29.8 x 40.6 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Anonymous Gift (1942)
As we know one of the events that has happened during the Great Depression is the Dust Bowl. This drawing of the "Approaching Storm" by Thomas Hart Benton, has shown a scene of a farmer with his horse and farm field before the big dust storm has hit them. "Thomas Hart Benton was an America painter, muralist, and printmaker." (Wikipedia Contributors (“Thomas Hart Benton (Painter)”). He was part of the Regionalist Art Movement along with Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry.
While this art piece was a Lithograph art, to me it also looked as an if it was drawn with a pencil or even a charcoal because of how dark the shades are. The use of oil and water really blended out and showed just how big the coming storm was going to be. What also got me to pick this art piece was because of how the plants on the bottom left shows to be droopy as if it was dying and this is like a foreshadowing of how not a single plant will be able to live through this storm. Another thing is that we can see both the farmer and the horses were also looking towards the storm as if they were sensing something was about to happen and the farmer is packing up his things to go take shelter. The use of light and shadow for this art piece is amazing and very detailed of the landscape and nature coming in.
Joseph Paul Vost (1897-1947), "Sharecroppers' Revolt," 1939, oil on panel, 24 x 30 in., Shogren-Meyer Collection
"Joseph Vost was a German American visual artist. He taught art in St. Louis and did much public work for the New Deal art projects during the Great Depression." (“Joseph Vorst”). This artwork was inspired by a real event that happened called "The Sharecroppers Revolt" which was when "More than 1,000 sharecroppers and their families set up a protest camp on the side of two Missouri state highways to draw attention to the deplorable economic and housing conditions that kept them impoverished and dependent." (“Oh Freedom after While: The Missouri Sharecropper Protest of 1939”).
This art piece is one of the demonstrations of how the African American lived during this protest and crisis. What I like about this art piece is that even though this was an oil painting, I see it as a chalk type of drawing, with the colors just blended out. I'm amaze that how they used colors for this piece doesn't look to light, but more in representing a dark time with what was going on. Especially with the use of shading, which was used a lot, and the clothes were my favorite since the shades shows details.
Grant Wood (1891-1942), "American Gothic,"1930, oil on Beaver Board, 78 x 65.3 cm (30 3/4 x 25 3/4 in.), Friends of American Art Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago
"Grant DeVolson Wood was an American painter and representative of Regionalism. But he's well known for "American Gothic", which has become an iconic example of early 20th-century American art." (Wikipedia Contributors). It was because of Grant Wood that other artist like John Steuart Curry and Thomas Hart Benton came back to the Midwest. "In 1932, Wood helped found the Stone City Art Colony near his hometown to help artists get through the Great Depression. One of his most known and famous painting is this piece called "American Gothic", which is said to be a "recognized cultural icon, comparable to Leonardo da Vinci's "Monal Lisa" and Edvard Munch's "The Scream".
How Wood used art elements in this art piece to represent every farmer and their families look during the Great Depression. How I compare it to the Great Depression is in the color representations for the background and the figures themselves. The blue sky, white house, and green trees in the background makes the scene looks like there is nothing wrong but when you come down to the two figures themselves it looks like a different story. Both the dad and daughter are both wearing dark colors of black and dark red with little bits of white and adding to the fact that they are both not smiling is what I would picture farmers those days have on their faces. Like the "Mona Lisa", the face on this piece made me felt somehow uncomfortable because of the intense eye contact whenever I look at them.
I don't think that I would own a copy of any of these artworks I found and picked because they are not really my style. But I will always find every artwork fascinating with the history and story behind each and every one of them. Especially when the artworks are themed into something so meaningfully deep like the Great Depression, it would immediately make me feel what the artist is feeling when making these art pieces.
Resources:
Art Institute of Chicago. “American Gothic | the Art Institute of Chicago.” The Art Institute of Chicago, 2009, www.artic.edu/artworks/6565/american-gothic.
“Joseph Vorst.” Wikipedia, 26 Jan. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Vorst. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.
Malone, Sam. “The Great Depression: An Unprecedented Time in Art History.” DailyArt Magazine, 28 Mar. 2024, www.dailyartmagazine.com/the-great-depression-in-art/. Accessed 4 Apr. 2024.
National Gallery of Art. “Great Depression.” Www.nga.gov, www.nga.gov/learn/teachers/lessons-activities/uncovering-america/great-depression.html.
“Oh Freedom after While: The Missouri Sharecropper Protest of 1939.” Zinn Education Project, www.zinnedproject.org/materials/oh-freedom-after-while/. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.
Wikipedia Contributors. “Grant Wood.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Mar. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Wood.
“Thomas Hart Benton (Painter).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 June 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hart_Benton_(painter).
Hello Sallie,
ReplyDeleteThe painting “The Approaching Storm” is depressing as I think it was meant to be. The depression was a very dark, and depressing time in our history. I can imagine at the site of the storm rolling in the feeling of hopelessness at the thought not only being hungry but realizing that something is approaching that could take the little that you had left away. Although the painting is interesting to look at, I would not have it in my house.
The painting of the “Sharecropper’s revolt” shows a harsh reality for so many during that time. As I stated in my own blog, my grandparents were forced to live in a tent for several months in a field. They were not sharecroppers but were still forced for a time to live in less-than-ideal circumstances. This painting gives me an idea as to how that situation may have looked for them.
The facial expressions on the faces in the painting titled “American Gothic” is very typical of almost everyone that stood for a painting or had their picture taken during this period. I attribute that to it being a time when life was difficult and there was little to smile about, and that they were plain exhausted from all the hard labor they performed just to survive. I would not have this painting in my house either.
Nice choices for representing The Great Depression. It was one of the worst time periods in US history. "Approaching Storm" by Thomas Hart Benton is a dreary lithography print. I just watched a video on Khan Academy about how the process works. https://youtu.be/nUXDltQfqSA?si=HFnLIeu-f0QNqemC I am definitely interested in taking a print-making class at the campus when I get a chance. The print does look like a charcoal drawing and feels like impressionism. The chemical reaction from the lithography print makes the dramatic scene of the storm a feeling of fright. Today we can look at our phones and know the weather by the hour. I can even feel the winds from the shape of the Tree, as the farmer triage plows towards home. The print reminds me of a poem I found in my dad’s journal. He writes about the humility of a farmer tilling the earth behind the plow. “They and earth are one” It was harder times before machines, and then the depression of the Dust Bowl foreshadowing. My dad’s mother was a little girl during these times. It would be nice to discuss her experiences, but having this print to reflect on is just how impressionable art has for us to remember history. Or we are doomed to repeat it. "Sharecroppers' Revolt” has some irony in the title. The faces of the people look anxious but also show us that sticking together during the hard times brings ease to the troubled times. "American Gothic” reminds me of my parents. The look on the wife’s face looks frustrated and the husband’s face says, we got to make do with what we have, to get through. Thanks for some fun exploring in art exploration this week.
ReplyDeleteAmerican Gothic is probably the most iconic piece of American artwork from this period. At first glance, it's just a portrait of a farming family of the era, but it goes deeper than that. When looking deeper into the meaning behind it you can see the pain and struggles on the man's face of the constant unknown tragedies they have faced. The woman seems to be staring at the man with a look of sorrow seeing how the man has been affected through the times.
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