"Wild Life: The National Parks
Preserve All Life.", New York City Federal Art Project, WPA,
1940
The
Federal Art Project (FAP) was the visual-arts arm of the Great Depression-era New Deal Work Projects Administration
Federal One program in the United States
. It operated from August 29, 1935, until
June 30, 1943. Reputed to have created more than 200,000 separate
works, FAP artists created posters, murals and paintings. Some
works still stand among the most-significant pieces of
public art in the country.
The program made no distinction between
representational and
nonrepresentational art.
Abstraction had not yet gained favor in
the 1930s and 1940s and, thus, was virtually unsalable. As a
result, the program supported such iconic artists as
Jackson Pollock before their work could earn
them income.
The FAP's primary goals were to employ out-of-work artists and to
provide art for non-federal government buildings: schools,
hospitals, libraries, etc. The work was divided into art
production, art instruction and art research. The primary output of
the art-research group was the
Index of American Design, a
mammoth and comprehensive study of American material culture.
The FAP
was one of a short-lived series of Depression-era visual-arts
programs, which included the Section of Painting and
Sculpture and the Public
Works of Art Project (both of which, unlike the WPA-operated
FAP, were operated by the U.S.
Department of
the Treasury).
Notables
Some of the well-known artists supported by the project:
- *Willem de Kooning and
Santiago MartÃnez
Delgado were also employed by the FAP temporarily but were
unable to stay because they were not U.S. citizens at the
time.
See also
References
External links
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