Section of Painting and Sculpture

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During the Great Depression in the United States, the Section of Painting and Sculpture was a public art program administered by the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Like other New Deal public art programs, the Section (as it was commonly called) was designed to increase employment among artists, but it was unusual in awarding commissions competitively, based on artistic talent. In total, the Section commissioned more than 1300 murals and 300 sculptures, many of which were placed in post offices throughout the United States of America.^[1]

Contents 1 Creation of the Section 2 The art 3 Final years 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Creation of the Section

The Section was created in 1934 and led by Edward Bruce. Bruce had also led the Treasury Department's Public Works of Art Project, the first federal art program, created in 1933 after the American painter George Biddle suggested the idea to President Roosevelt. Other federal art programs followed, including the Federal Art Project (created in 1935 by the Works Progress Administration, an independently operating federal agency) and the Treasury Relief Art Project (created in 1935 with funds granted by the WPA to the Treasury Department).^[2] The Section of Painting and Sculpture was renamed as the Section of Fine Arts in 1939 and operated until 1942.

The Section’s primary objective was to "secure suitable art of the best quality available for the embellishment of public buildings." Artworks created under the Section of Fine Arts were site-specific murals and sculptures for newly constructed federal buildings and post offices. One percent of the costs of each new federal building was set aside to fund the program.^[3]

[edit] The art

Unlike the other New Deal art programs, the Section awarded commissions through competitions and paid artists a lump sum for their work. Competitions were open to all artists, regardless of economic status, and artists' proposals were reviewed without identifying the name of the artist who had made the submission.^[3]

The Section sought entries that reflected local interests and events, and the Section encouraged the artists to think of the communities, not the Section, as the artists' "patron."^[3] Indeed, artists awarded commissions were encouraged to visit the community to ensure that their murals reflected the community. Although many of the artists did not make such visits, it was common for artists to correspond with the town (as well as the Post Office Department and the Section).^[3] Some local communities rejected the approved designs, and the artists would work to respond to these concerns and save their commissions.^[3]

The program also encouraged artists to reflect the building’s function. For example, the Ariel Rios Building, which was constructed in the early 1930s as the headquarters for the U.S. Post Office Department and which was one of the first buildings to receive works of art under this program, contains 25 murals created with support from the Section intended to depict the history of mail delivery and the settlement of the American West. (These murals have been the subject of controversy, most recently when visitors and federal employees at the Ariel Rios Federal Building expressed complained that six of these murals include offensive stereotypes of Native Americans.^[4]))

[edit] Final years

In 1939, under the Reorganization Act, all Treasury Department and WPA arts programs were incorporated into the Federal Works Agency, but the outbreak of World War II and other factors were soon to end the programs. Bruce died of a heart attack in January of 1943. By the end of 1943, all of the New Deal art programs had been shut down.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• New Deal/WPA Art Project
• A New Deal for the Arts (National Archives and Records Administration online exhibition)
• Summary of federal art programs prepared by the General Services Administration
• Article on the Section from the website of the Arkansas Post Office Mural Project of the University of Central Arkansas's College of Fine Arts and Communication]