How the New Deal Brought us Abstract Expressionism

Speaking of art hoe cliques, did you guys know that FDR's New Deal included programs the employed artists full time to make paintings, murals, and sculptures for government buildings and institutions? It's the story of Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Jacob Lawrence and many more artists who championed modern art in America like never before. And so what happens when you create laws that protect workers, give artists full time jobs and encourage them to hang out together? That's right folks, a union.

 

Today's episode dives into what the New Deal art programs looked like what they meant for artists in America, and in particular for Jacob Lawrence and Lee Krasner. Sorry about Jackie's sniffles, turns out she had covid while we recorded this.

(We chat in the beginning until 15:37 if you want to skip to the meat of the episode)

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Sources:

Artists at Work: A Film on the New Deal Art Projects

Lee Krasner: Making Art, Making Trouble, and Making Do in the 1930s (lecture by Prof Gail Levin)

The Life and Work of Abstract Expressionist Lee Krasner: A Biographer's View (lecture by Prof Gail Levin)

The New Deal for Artists: the birth of abstract expressionism (Thesis by Jennifer M. Boling)