SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN AMERICAN ART. Vol. 1, no. 1 by Migs GroveReview by: Stephanie SigalaArt Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Fall1988), p. 122Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27947942 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 23:49

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The University of Chicago Press and Art Libraries Society of North America are collaborating with JSTOR todigitize, preserve and extend access to Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmerica.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.134 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 23:49:10 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

122 Art Documentation, Fall, 1988

The latest book to look at art supported by the Federal government during this period is Posters of the WPA. Christo pher DeNoon has authored a handsomely designed title that discusses briefly, and illustrates heavily, many of the posters produced from 1935-1943. During these eight short years, the WPA/FAP sponsored the remarkable production of more than 2,000,000 posters from 35,000 designs. The first posters

were tediously painted and lettered by hand, but in 1934 when Anthony Velonis joined the Civilian Works Administra tion (which later became the WPA/FAP), he brought with him the silk-screening technique he learned while producing wall paper; this allowed later posters to become more efficiently produced in large quantities. Except for a few posters that continued to be made using the more laborious printing methods of woodcut, etching, monotype, and linoleum block, the vast majority of later posters were silk-screened.

Although the primary purpose of all Federal art projects during the New Deal was to employ more persons in the work force while allowing them to continue producing art, in most cases there was an additional requirement that a civic duty or function be fulfilled or expressed. Thus, posters made by the WPA/FAP promoted or advertised a variety of causes, but all to the general benefit of society. Some posters announced exhibitions sponsored by the FAP, including those in which government-funded artists such as Alice Neel, Jacob Lawrence, and Jackson Pollock participated. Others advertised theatrical productions sponsored by the Federal Theatre Project. To encourage domestic travel and promote the splendor of the nation even in hard economic times, the

WPA/FAP also produced posters for the U.S. Travel Bureau that depicted a "See America" attitude. Other posters were less specific, but had a more expressed didactic purpose, such as the promotion of environmental concerns ("Don't Kill our Wild Life"), art classes for children, the use of libraries, zoos, and plan?tariums; some depicted events in the history of various New York City civic services simply to educate the public. Health issues were often the subjects of posters, some warning people to be aware of disreputable physicians ("Beware the Cancer Quack"), many others warning of the spread of venereal disease ("Whom Have You Exposed to Syphilis?"). Activities or products of other Federal programs, including the Federal Writers Project, the Federal Music Proj ect, and the Federal Dance Project, were promoted in WPA/ FAP posters.

At the onset of World War II, the WPA/FAP entered its final phase in 1942 when the agency was transferred to the De fense Department and appropriately renamed the Graphics Section of the War Service Division. These final images, al most always dramatic, served as American propaganda for the war effort. Often they depicted blatantly racist portrayals of the Japanese enemy; at other times, they graphically re minded the American people to "Keep it to Yourself Buddy," orto "Keep Mum Chum."

DeNoon's choice to include more than 300 reproductions, all but 40 reproduced in color and all printed admirably, is the major reason to buy this book. Although small, the illustra tions provide a useful epitome of the incredible output of the

WPA/FAP's poster work, little of which has been reproduced before, and most of which has suffered the same fate as other objects once considered ephemera: they are no longer extant.

Unfortunately, the care that went into the printing of the reproductions does not appear in textual aspects of the book. One wishing to learn more of these wonderful images is disappointed to learn that there are no footnotes or sources mentioned for quotations. And when turning to the "se lected" bibliography, further disappointment awaits as one finds both incomplete and inaccurate citations (no page numbers for journal articles, and the aforementioned Demo

cratic Vistas is cited incorrectly). The four brief essays written by Jim Heimann, Richard Floethe, Francis O'Conner, and An thony Velonis are informative, but usually anecdotal and oc casionally lacking in information (for example, Heimann fails to mention that the Armory Show appeared also in Boston, in his "A Design Perspective"). DeNoon's failure to provide dates for most posters further frustrates the user who wishes to delve deeper into historical details of the work. For

tunately, the index is useful in providing access to names, media, poster genres, and other subjects.

Ultimately, this book is constructed with visual interests in mind. Beautifully typeset in a typeface almost contemporary with the posters (although somewhat difficult to read), this book sould be especially useful to graphic designers, since it provides excellent examples of work produced in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. As such, and until a gen uinely scholarly approach is applied to these stimulating, often progressive images, Posters of the WPA should be ob tained by libraries concerned with visual design or its history.

James H. Carmin

University of Oregon

SERIALS REVIEWS SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN AMERICAN ART. Vol. 1, no. 1

(Spring 1987)? . Editor: Migs Grove. Oxford University Press, 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York, 10016. Semi annual. ISSN 0890 4901.

Creating a magazine that bridges the gap between the per son in the street and the complexities of academic scholar ship requires a fine sense of the topical and a light hand on the footnotes. Smithsonian Magazine is the acknowledged master of the genre, being popular without condescension while providing readable information for a college-level au dience. Smithsonian Studies in American Art is in many ways the "son of Smithsonian" Although the new magazine is more specialized than its parent, a diversity of topics in American art history are handled with the same grace, flair, and erudition.

In the first issue the scene is set for an eclectic mix of articles with a strong cultural history point of view. Karal Ann Marling discusses the cultural genesis of the Vietnam Vet erans Memorial statue group. Elizabeth Broun analyzes Thomas Hart Benton's political evolution and its relationship to his art. Jules Prown speculates on the unconscious design of Winslow Homer's Life Line. In the same issue Stephen Jay Gould moves outside of his usual field of paleontology to compare and contrast "time's arrow" and "time's cycle" in a

memorable article on James Hampton's The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millenium General Assembly. The second issue (Fall 1987) begins with a r??valuation of Michael Curtiz's role in Casablanca before articles discussing the role of the Torre dei Schiavi in the work of 19th-century American landscape painters who travelled to Italy, Thomas Eakins' Ar cadian works, the Liberty cap (an emblem of the French re

public) as a revolutionary symbol in America and France dur ing the late 18th century, and an interview with Wayne

Thiebaud.

Any new magazine must look good to win the popular audience, and this one does. Each 96-page issue is liberally illustrated, of course, but glossy paper and an easy-to-read typeface also contribute to its appearance. The illustrations are primarily black and white, although these as well as the few color illustrations are of high quality. This is neither American Heritage nor American Art Journal, but a publication both more sophisticated than the former and more access ible to the non-art historian than the latter. Smithsonian Stud ies in American Art should appeal to a wide range of library patrons, and given its potential for usefulness to scholar and student alike, one hopes it will be widely indexed in the near future.

Stephanie S?gala Saint Louis Art Museum

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.134 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 23:49:10 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions