The Utah Museum of Fine Arts presents American Prints From the Great Depression

Written by Graham Weatherby Tuesday, 14 February 2012 00:19

Salt Lake City, Utah.- The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is pleased to present "At Work: Prints from the Great Depression", on view at the museum through May 6th. Organized in collaboration with Dr. Matthew Basso, Assistant Professor of History and Gender Studies and Director of the American West Center at the University of Utah, this exhibition features Depression-era prints focusing on men and women at work, selected from the remarkable collection of Marcia Price and Ambassador John Price. During the years of the government-sponsored Federal Art Project, American printmaking techniques were expanded, and themes of labor were integral to the new print vocabulary. Printmakers, along with other artists, were given an unprecedented sense of purpose when the U.S. government included them in the vast numbers of unemployed workers who could apply for work relief from the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

“Remembered as one of the most devastating periods in the history of the United States, unemployment and the Great Depression are linked in people’s minds for good reason,” says Dr. Basso. “At its height, the Depression left more than 20 percent of Americans out of work, and iconic images of Dust Bowl migrants and soup kitchens dominate our picture of 1930s America. But as the exhibition At Work reveals, Depression-era artists were equally interested in depicting people at work.” At Work features more than 60 prints by Thomas Hart Benton, Herschel Levit, Claire Mahl, Grant Wood and dozens of other printmakers, many of whom were among the 5,000 visual artists employed by the federal government in the 1930s. Their prints provide a complex portrait of the place of work in the social politics of the era. They illustrate, for example, that many white-collar workers were forced to take blue-collar jobs after the collapse, and that government programs designed to support family breadwinners often left women with limited opportunity for paid work. Printmaking became a particularly popular artistic mode of expression for Depression-era artists. Inherently democratic, the medium enabled printmakers to easily create and cheaply distribute copies of their work. Many artists celebrated the working class through their prints, creating dignified images of farmers, railroad workers, seamstresses, and street vendors. "At Work" features some similarly heroic images of the working class, with prints depicting muscular men building dams, drilling oil or working in factories. The exhibition draws parallels between the hard labor of these men and images of women working at home, serving as seamstresses or cooking meals. A less heroic portrait of the working class is also present in At Work, as some artists portrayed hardened, stoop-shouldered victims of the economic crisis.


The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is Utah's primary cultural resource for global visual arts. It is unique in its dual role as a university and state art museum. It is Utah's only visual arts institution that collects, exhibits, interprets, and preserves a comprehensive collection of original art objects. The creation of a formal art gallery on the top floor of the Park Building in the early 1900s marks the physical birth of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. In the beginning, paintings by local artists filled this one-room gallery. Over the next five decades, the art department at the University of Utah received major art gifts and specific requests from donors to remodel the gallery into a museum. After the renovation of the gallery was finished, the University's president, A. Ray Olpin, established it as the Utah Museum of Fine Arts on May 6, 1951. In 1967, Frank Sanquinetti was hired as the first professional director. By this time, the Museum had entered a new period of growth, which resulted in the building of a new museum. After the Museum's relocation in 1970, its goal was to focus on the continuation of expanding its collections. Events were held to gain support from the community and the Annual Friends of the Art Museum Acquisition Fund was formed. Over the years this Annual Fund has been helpful with the expansion of the Museum's collections and its ability to offer art and history education. Thanks to the generous patrons, local and national foundations, the University community, and the citizens of the State of Utah, the UMFA's collection now encompasses 5,000 years of artistic creativity. Since the mid-1900s, when the collection was around 800 objects, it has grown to over 17,000 art objects. This huge expansion required the building of yet another museum, and with the help of many generous donors the construction of a new 74,000 square-foot building was started in 1998. The UMFA opened in the Marcia and John Price Museum Building in June 2001, and the preceding year David L. Dee was named Executive Director. Dee resigned in 2009 and was named Director Emeritus. Gretchen Dietrich, former Director of Public Programs and Curatorial Affairs, was named Executive Director of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in July 2010. Since the second relocation, the UMFA has experienced unprecedented growth in all areas of operation. In February 2005, the Utah State Legislature declared the UMFA as an official state institution, confirming the importance of the Museum's role as a center for art, culture, and education in the state of Utah. As Utah's flagship art museum, the UMFA collects, exhibits, interprets, and preserves a comprehensive collection of more than 18,000 original art objects from around the world. Today the UMFA strives to give everyone the opportunity to experience different ideas, values, and cultures from its extensive art collections. Visit the museum's website at ... http://umfa.utah.edu

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