The 1930s and 1940s have been referred to as “a golden age of graphic art in the service of society.” Nowhere is this more evident than in the expansive collection of posters commissioned by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) under the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. (5) These posters were in many ways unlikely candidates for noteworthy design. Created primarily to provide work for unemployed artists, many feared government sponsorship of art would stifle creativity. Furthermore, American design lacked a unified style at the time, instead borrowing aesthetics from European movements. However, what emerged from the WPA poster division was both creative and innovative, producing a body of poster art described at the time as “more vital than any this country has ever known.” (2,9) The Federal Art Project + the Poster Division The WPA was the largest agency in Roosevelt’s New Deal, and it put unemployed artists to work
Read more →
