My grandparents were exceptional. Grandmother was optimistic and positive about everything. If someone did something really awful she would say that "they had a good heart." She never worked outside of the home, so I spent a lot of time with her. She was the oldest of 8 children and I was fortunate enough to know 7 of them. My grandparents both read the Atlanta Constitution and the Atlanta Journal each day cover to cover until the paper consolidated into one daily edition. They watched I Love Lucy and the evening news, which always ended with "Goodnight Chet, Goodnight David." Like all southerners, they voted Democratic until the 1960's, and they spoke of Franklin D. Roosevelt as if he were a deceased uncle. When I was older, Grandmother took me to the "Little White House" in Warm Springs, Georgia. Here, in what amounted to a shrine for most Georgians, I saw the "Unfinished Portrait" in the very bedroom where President Roosevelt slumped over in his chair and died unexpectedly.
I studied history and learned that this man, the most powerful leader of the free world, was crippled much of his adult life. As evidence of the power of images, there were very few photographs of Roosevelt being carried or assisted. Prior to the Americans with Disabilities Act, such a condition was considered a sign of weakness and perhaps unfitness for the job. I wondered in recent years if President Roosevelt would have approved of his likeness seated in a wheelchair at the World War II monument. In school, I saw movies showing Roosevelt's funeral train. Along the railroad tracks from Georgia to Washington, all people, black and white, shamelessly wept at the nation's loss. Here was one of the first places that I recognized the power of visual images. From such experiences, I decided that I wanted to develop a unit using art as a medium for teaching history.
Symbolic communication was used for thousands of years to convey meaning, share experiences, record events, and influence other humans. Some of these symbols are as obvious as the skull and cross bones sign on a bottle of poison. Many symbols are the results of political or humanitarian activities, such as the use of Uncle Sam to represent the United States or the flag of the International Red Cross. Use of "worker caps and hard hats" came to symbolize the workers of the industrialized world. Where do these symbols come from and what is their origin? Further, why are some recognized universally by people worldwide, and others remain obscure? During our course of study, we will explore symbolism and probe the meanings of the symbols widely painted by both Mexican and American artists during the 1920's and 1930's. In our study, we will explore common symbols as well as create a set of easily recognizable and decodable symbols. Students will choose a symbol to represent themselves. They will create designs which use symbols to create support for political, economic, or social ideas.
Today, understanding visual and symbolic communication is more important than it was in 1950 when TV was a fledgling medium. Constant bombardment by television and advertising makes us acutely aware of the persuasive power of visual and symbolic images. There is nothing like a controversy such as the upcoming Supreme Court nominations to remind us of the persuasive arm of the media. Learning to decipher the changing images that hurl like a meteor toward us is essential for everyone. One of the lessons in the unit deals with the effects of symbols in the creation of murals by Mexican and American WPA muralists and by our class.
How were people informed and influenced prior to the mass communication era? Artists and their patrons knew for centuries that art was a powerful tool for educating, enlightening, influencing, and recording events for all strata of society. The exact purposes of the Lascaux Cave drawings in France remain unknown. Resplendent with drawings and symbols, they were created about 30.000 B.C.E. Were they recalling a famous hunt? Were they instructional designs for training young hunters? Stained glass windows in Gothic cathedrals illustrated Biblical stories to educate the unlettered masses about the word of God. Renaissance frescos retold both Biblical and mythological stories. In fact, murals were created by most early people including the Chinese and Egyptians. In Mexico, artists painted murals from earliest days right through the colonial period with dramatic effect in the 20th century. A trip through Latin America confirmed the existence of exterior and interior murals trying to covey urgent but as yet undecipherable messages to the 21st century. Unlike easel paintings with limited public exposure, murals were up for viewing, contemplation, and education.
In The Influence of Mexican Muralists on WPA Art curriculum unit, we will examine paintings created in the United States by Mexican and American muralists from 1920-1940. Using the works of Diego Rivera, David Siquerios, and Jose Orozco and the American Works Project Administration muralists, we will study the influence that the Mexican artists had on their American counterparts. In our study, we will explore common symbols and messages in the State of Florida WPA murals that I photographed and those created by Mexican artists in the United States. Another lesson in this unit deals with the manipulation of symbols in the creation of murals by both Mexican and American artists. Student activities include choosing a symbol to represent themselves and eventually combining symbols to create persuasive images that send a message or garner support for school programs like Students Against Drunk Driving or Prom Promise. The culminating performance standard for the unit of study is to create a set of murals (or mural)which captures the lives and experiences of the very diverse student groups at our high school just as the WPA artists captured the spirit of Americans facing the uncertainties of the Depression.
Why study Mexican muralists? Trained in Mexico and Europe, they were recognized in the 1920's as the greatest fresco painters since the Renaissance. Mayan and Aztec murals decorated the Mexican landscape for hundreds of years dating from the earliest Indian inhabitants. The Mexican muralists were unparalleled in their commitments to resurrect an art form from their past to tell the story of and shape the future of post revolutionary Mexico. The Mexican government supported art academies as early as the founding of The Academy of San Carlos in 1785. Virtually every Mexican artist studied at this school under the patronage of the government and wealthy Mexicans. At this time there was no recognized national art of Mexico. Foreign art styles were imported and taught by master Spanish artists. Initially, the early murals depicted non-political settings with universal themes. In the beginning, the style of art was tightly controlled (like the closely controlled WPA Art subjects). The young artists rejected Spanish art as foreign and yearned to create a national art for Mexico (Patterson, 1964, 376-79). Many of the more promising artists, such as Diego Rivera, were given government grants to study in Europe. There he sampled the new art forms in Paris, studied the Renaissance painters, and gained an international reputation.
After the Revolution came to an end in 1920, Jose Vasconcelos was appointed Mexico's Minister of Education. Vasconcelos recruited feisty, young artists, and lured famous artists from Europe, including Diego Rivera and David Siquerios (Patterson, 1964, 379). Lenient policies at the Academy gave more freedom to the dissatisfied young artists in choosing their subjects which only created more dissent. Subsequently, unrest and violent protest at the academy frequently occurred as the artists used the school as a forum for their revolutionary political ideas on labor, agriculture, cultural, and foreign policy.
The Mexican Revolution freed the country of foreign political influence, but authoritarian rulers retained power and the issue of inadequate or non-existent land reform persisted. The Communist Revolution in Russia attracted the land poor and oppressed workers of every nation. Two of the leading muralists, Diego Rivera and David Siqueiros, were heavily involved in the Communist party both locally and internationally. Each contributed to La Marchete or Frente a Frente where they successfully used their prodigious talents to create cartoon-like illustrations in tract flyers to indoctrinate the illiterate peasants of Mexico into the brotherhood of communism (Azuela, 1993, 82-83).
Mexican Muralists created many public and private murals in Mexico and the United States. Diego Rivera and David Siqueiros believed that art was the highest form of human expression and a key force in social revolution. After the 1st Congress of Soviet Writers' in Moscow in 1938, their commitment to social realism became more militant and focused on contemporary social issues. One manifesto signed by Rivera, Sigueiros, and Guerrero declared that "art and politics are inseparable." Through El Machete, art attempted to awaken an awareness of history and Civil Rights in Mexico's poor. In this publication, no by-lines were added to identify bourgeois individualism, adding to the belief that many more contributors wrote for the publication. A popular trio, the Trinity of Soldiers, Farmers, and Workers, was created and repeated in various revolutionary tracts (Azuela, 1993, 83). These images recurred on newspaper mastheads and murals alike.
By the early 1930's, art conscious Americans were familiar with the work of Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and Jose Orozco. The three giants of Mexican art took America by storm. Although the communist political philosophy of Rivera and Siquerios ran contrary to the capitalistic principles of the United States, American private institutions and individuals employed their impressive talents as early as the 1920's. Early Rivera murals were commissioned by the California School of Fine Arts, the San Francisco Stock Exchange, a private home owner, and the Detroit Institute of Fine Arts. The painting in Detroit integrated workers into the machines themselves and was clearly anti-capitalist. Siqueiros was invited to the United States where he conducted workshops in New York and Los Angeles at the Chouinard Art School for 10 local artists. He completed three outdoor frescos in Los Angeles in the early 1930's. His most controversial piece, Tropical America, combined a loin cloth clad Indian figure crucified on a double cross topped with eagles perched on North American coins. Although the painting was hailed as a success by the art community, the anti-imperialist theme resulted in the fresco being painted over. He also conducted workshops in New York. Orozco completed murals in California, New York, and New Hampshire (Goldman,1974,325). However controversial the American drawings were, they were subdued compared to the grotesque and controversial figures and forms depicted on the commissions in Mexico.
Although they shared many similar ideas, Orozco, Siquerios, and Rivera were different in their artistic styles and temperaments. Orozco was an expressionist who painted in broad strokes. He opposed the separation of painting and folk art. Diego Rivera's early works are heavily influenced by his years in Europe where he experimented with numerous styles. He painted smoothly, cramming each centimeter of space, while creating a narrative surface. Diego Rivera created over 6000 square meters of murals (Craven, 2001. 222). Unlike the others, Siquerios rarely used themes from Mexican history. He experimented with the airbrush and pyroxillin paint to find a material that could resist sun and rain. Absorbed in depicting the class struggle, he was the first muralist to use photographs in developing his murals (Goldman, 1974,323).
The Influence of Mexican Muralists on the WPA Art Projects unit take takes us back to a time before television. The election of Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 came when the nation was on the verge of crisis after three years of Republican inability to solve the deepening financial morass. Within 100 days of his inauguration in 1933, Roosevelt presented comprehensive plans to Congress for putting the ailing nation back on its feet. Roosevelt understood the power of the modern media as he reported to the nation via radio in his fireside chats. Roosevelt and his inner circle worked tirelessly to put together legislation that would ease the welfare rolls and put Americans back to work. One of the legislative initiatives was the Works Progress Administration. Initially, the WPA constructed buildings nation-wide, including post offices, the Treasury and Interior Buildings in Washington, and countless other public buildings Combined with the Civilian Conservation Corps and other New Deal "make work" programs, the WPA was slowly returning labor to work.
The inclusion of art as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects was unquestionably a stroke of genius. One must credit not only the Roosevelts, but artists, friends, and supporters of the President and First Lady such as George Biddle and Holger Cahill. Biddle, himself an artist, studied under Diego Rivera and greatly admired his work. Biddle reportedly told the President that artists had to eat, too (O'Connor.1973, 457). Cahill was a pivotal figure who formulated a plan for bringing art into mainstream society.
Holger Cahill, a museum curator, expressed fears that "without the community's aid, [during the Depression] the arts would enter a dark age from which they might not recover for generations". Influenced by the ideas of Thomas Dewey, Cahill declared that "industrialism created a vulgarity of taste that excluded the fine arts". A new social order was needed in which all members of the community would see the value of art as an outlet for everyone in society. Artists were entitled to employment. To Cahill, appreciation of art was not a birthright, but a product of experience. He formulated a plan to set up art education classes and community art centers. To repair the breach between artist and public, Cahill sought to create a partnership by localizing WPA Art projects. This led to the joint planning of local projects by artists and the community leaders. Through the mural projects, art was taken to the heartland through the beautification of local WPA projects. The murals were intended as a sign of pride and hope for a better tomorrow. The mediation that resulted from the negotiations between the two groups resembled the type of cooperation and compromise frequently found in our democratic government (Mavigliano, 1984, 26-29).
Like many other countries, the Mexican government supported art projects to garner citizen approval and foster national art. In the 1920's, the Mexican government began offering commissions for the decoration of public buildings. This influenced American leaders to recognize the importance of creating a national art that would bind citizens together especially in very troubling economic and political times. Events abroad further forced U.S. leaders to consider initiating programs to increase American pride and forge the nation together under a set of recognizable values. The timing of the project came at the moment when United States workers faced massive unemployment (up to 25% among white Americans) and even artists of stature faced the prospects of abandoning their aspirations and seeking work in any field to make ends meet.
Unlike the Mexican artists who had enjoyed both private and public support for their projects, American artists were dependent on wealthy art collectors, institutes, or the whims of the market. Artistic freedom was sacrificed for dollars. What was unique about the role of art in the United States during the Great Depression was the government's $74 million dollar financial support allowing artists to continue their craft (Beckh, 1960, 4). For the first time in the history of the United States, the government actively set into motion a policy to free art from its elitist past, extend the appreciation of art through art education and community art centers, while eliminating artists from the relief rolls.
There were many noticeable differences in the ways in which art contracts were executed under the WPA. Artists were forced to adhere to the strict rules under which they were contracted and paid. Artists were not paid for preliminary work or sketches. This caused some artists, such as Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, to refuse contract work. All topics required local approval. Later, local governments were required to pay 25% of the non-labor costs of the projects. Payments of $23.50 to $42.00 a week were withheld until completion (Mavigliano, 1984, 28). The democratization of art demanded that the artists confer and compromise with local officials to meet community standards. The topics included mainly provincial American scenes and social realism The present was described as enlightened compared to the past. Many of the Florida WPA murals that I have photographed are pastoral and cling to the idealized past. Erica Rubenstein, in her unpublished thesis in 1943, stated that "topics emphasized labor, the reward for a man's work, and the dignity and right of a man to work" (Berman, 1977, 653). There was little negativism as the artists were grateful for the opportunity to work. Like other naïve New Dealers, the artists believed in democracy, the future of the United States, peace, and Franklin Roosevelt.
Traditionally, Americans harbored an attitude that art was a luxury. Virginia Mecklenburg stated that "there was a negative assessment of the contemporary public's artistic consciousness, but expressed confidence that the public could be awakened to the beauties of art" (Mecklenburg, 1979). An appreciation of fine arts was considered upper-class, if one could define such a group in a nation where "all men are created equal." Executive Order # 7046 stated that WPA work would be non-discriminatory (Javis, 2000, 241). African Americans participated primarily as writers and in theater productions, with one documented mural at the Harlem Hospital. In spite of the executive order, The Index of American Design did not include Native American artifacts. There was a series of paintings in the Interior Department building by the "5 Kiowa Artists"(Mecklenburg, 1979).
Although Roosevelt remained adamant that relief was the primary reason for the arts projects, Henry Moganthau created the Treasury Department Section Art that emphasized quality art. Section projects were viewed as more elitist due to the competitions held to secure the best artists for beautification of new construction. A panel of artists carefully conducted anonymous competitions. The names of artists were not revealed until the award was announced. Submitted projects were considered on the basis of accuracy in drawing, color, compositional balance, and appropriateness of scale. A list of runner-ups was maintained and used to award smaller projects. The Treasury Department awarded 1400 contracts valued at over $3 million dollars (Mecklenburg, 1979).
The influence, popularity, and the recognized Communist tendencies of influential Mexican muralists brought them to the attention of the United States Congress. Congressional subcommittee members questioned the loyalty of the project artists. Congressman Dies convened Congressional hearings that ultimately resulted in reduced funding in the1940's. New Deal artist, Edward Lansing, reported that Congress, the press, and the public did not fully support the art projects (Monroe, 1973, 457). By the 1940's, war industries were supplying the Allies and WPA relief was suspended. Many artists disassociated themselves from the WPA due to the postwar red scares and McCarthyism. It was not until the post war period of the 1960's that many former recipients came forward to retell their stories.
Rationale
In a republican form of government, the highest possible level of education must be maintained through either public or private means. It is the people, through their elected officials, that ultimately must approve or reject the decisions and actions of their government. What is fair or biased, equitable or discriminatory toward the citizens of the nation and of the world is essential to know. Without the ability to evaluate information, either written or visual, and make rational choices as to its validity, a citizen cannot actively and honestly participate in the democratic process. The impressive role of art in influencing the public and formulating their reactions to political and economic events is clear from this unit.
Twenty-five per cent of our school is ESOL (English for the Speakers of Other Languages). Approximately 40% of our school population is economically disadvantaged. It is our duty to pass on the skills to recognize symbols and propaganda (either government or private) and create informed citizens who seek the truth and recognize attempts to manipulate public opinion.
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