Face(s) of the New Deal

Part 1

Part of the New Deal, the package of legislation and policies that the FDR administration instituted to deal with the Great

Depression in the 1930s, was the employment of artists and photographers by the Works Progress Administration and the Farm Security Administration to make art about the lives of everyday Americans.

See - Look at these three photographs from New Deal photographers. Describe them in detail.

Think/Feel - What thoughts and feelings do these images evoke? Speculate about meanings or interpretations that the work might generate for viewers? What does each of the works seem to say about the people depicted?

 

Connect

1) What thoughts do you have about the race, class, gender, and age of the subjects? Speculate about why this specific intersectional identity shows up so frequently in New Deal art.





Part 2

See - Now look at and describe these two pieces, one by Morris Topchevsky and one by Gordon Parks.

Think/Feel - What thoughts and feelings do these images evoke? Speculate about meanings or interpretations that the work might generate for viewers? What does each of the works seem to say about the people depicted?

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Gordon Parks. American Gothic

Connect

2) What thoughts do you have about the race, class, gender, and age of the subjects? How do they tell a different story about the U.S. in the Depression than the famous photographs above?

Read about Gordon Parks's photograph here.

3) What was Parks's own experience of racism in the time, and how was the photograph a response to that.

Read about Morris Topchevsky here.

4) How does Topchevsky's work reflect his career of arts education and advocacy?

A group of little girls sitting on the stairs in front of a school.
Dorothea Lange
Girls of Lincoln Bench School Studying their Reading Lessons, New Ontario, Malheur County, Oregon
toned gelatin silver print on paper
10 1/2 in. x 10 1/2 in. ( 26.67 cm x 26.67 cm )
Gift from the Collection of David S. Rosen MD, MPH Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division Reproduction # (407697, LCUSF34 - 21216E)
A young girl seated on a wooden porch, hands up to her neck.
Dorothea Lange
The Eight-Year Old Daughter of a Tobacco Farmer
toned gelatin silver print on paper
10 in. x 10 in. ( 25.4 cm x 25.4 cm )
Gift from the Collection of David S. Rosen MD, MPH Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division Reproduction # (407697 - LCUSF34 - 17918
A group of children stand tightly packed together behind a wooden fence.  None of the children appear to be facing the camera except for one girl in a gingham dress at the center of the photo.  This girl, slightly smiling, displays the cover of a book she holds in her hand.
Ben Shahn
School Children
toned gelatin silver print on paper
11 x 14 in. ( 27.94 x 35.56 cm )
Gift from the Collection of David S. Rosen MD, MPH Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division Reproduction # (318116 6-USF33-6147-M3B)
Morris Topchevsky
Out of the Mills
lithograph on paper
16 5/16 x 12 1/2 in. (41.3 x 31.6 cm);16 5/16 x 12 1/2 in. (41.3 x 31.6 cm)
Bequest of Jean Paul Slusser
Gordon Parks
American Gothic, Washington, D.C.
photograph on paper
10 3/4 x 11 1/2 in. (27.31 x 29.21 cm);7 3/4 x 11 1/2 in. (19.68 x 29.21 cm)
Museum purchase made possible by the University of Michigan Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and the Director's Acquisition Committee, 2019
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Gordon Parks. American Gothic

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Last Updated

May 29, 2020 11:03 a.m.

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