{"id":1892,"date":"2016-01-13T11:35:36","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T16:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drivingfordeco.com\/staging\/3617\/?p=1892"},"modified":"2016-01-13T23:36:14","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T04:36:14","slug":"memorial-art-gallerys-depression-era-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drivingfordeco.com\/staging\/3617\/memorial-art-gallerys-depression-era-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Art Gallery’s Depression Era Art"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"WPA<\/a>

WPA Poster Template designed by Erik Hans Krause, 1935-1941.
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, WPA Poster Collection<\/p><\/div>\n

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We don’t always\u00a0have to go “driving for deco”, sometimes we can find it right in our backyard. The\u00a0Memorial Art Gallery<\/a><\/span> in Rochester, New York\u00a0has several excellent examples of depression era art on permanent display.<\/h4>\n

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\"Memorial<\/a>

Memorial Art Gallery<\/p><\/div>\n

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These paintings include,\u00a0Reginald Marsh’s<\/a><\/span> (1898-1954) People’s Follies, No. 3<\/em> (1938).\u00a0Depicting the inside of a burlesque theatre,\u00a0it’s\u00a0typical of the urban life\u00a0that Marsh\u00a0was famous for painting.<\/h4>\n

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\"People's<\/a>

People’s Follies, No. 3<\/p><\/div>\n

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This painting of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge is a favorite of mine. Painted, circa 1939, by Ralston Crawford<\/a><\/span> (1906-1978) is precisionist in style, celebrating industrialization and technology.<\/h4>\n

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\"Whitestone<\/a>

Whitestone Bridge, ca. 1939-1940<\/p><\/div>\n

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Irene Rice Pereira’s<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>(1902-1971)\u00a0was a major force in the in the development of American Modernism. In 1931 she travel to Europe and her painting The Pendulum<\/em> (1937) was inspired\u00a0by\u00a0the machinery of the ocean liner’s engine room.<\/h4>\n

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\"The<\/a>

The Pendulum, 1937 Irene Rice Pereira<\/p><\/div>\n

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Landscape with Garage Lights<\/em>, 1931-1932 is typical of the paintings of prototype pop artist Stuart Davis<\/a><\/span> (1892-1964).<\/h4>\n

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\"Landscape<\/a>

Landscape with Garage Lights, 1931-1932, Stuart Davis<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"The<\/a>

The entrance to the Carl W. Peters exhibition at the Memorial Art Gallery.<\/p><\/div>\n

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For me the highlight of the visit to the Memorial Art Gallery was the special exhibit featuring the WPA<\/a><\/span> mural work of Carl W. Peters (1897-1980) that ran from October 18th\u00a0thru January 3rd. Carl W. Peters was a local Rochester, New York landscape painter who\u00a0captured a changing Rochester in his paintings. Here are examples of two of his pre-WPA paintings.<\/h4>\n

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\"Along<\/a>

Along the Genesee (1928). Peter captures the Genesee River gorge just north of downtown Rochester<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Memorial<\/a>

Memorial Bridge (1930). Peters painting of the construction of the Veterans’ Memorial Bridge across the Genesee River.<\/p><\/div>\n

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What is amazing\u00a0about Peters’ mural work\u00a0is that so much of it is still intact. Only one of his murals no longer exists. Peters’ earliest and non-WPA mural,\u00a0Rochester, Past, Present and Future<\/em>, was at one end of the main banking room of the Genesee Valley Trust Company building.<\/h4>\n

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\"Genesee<\/a>

Genesee Valley Trust Company Building (now the Times Square Building)<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Rochester,<\/a>

Rochester, Past, Present and Future (1930)<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Main<\/a>

Main Banking Room Genesse Valley Building with the Peters’ mural at the far end.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Here are examples of Peter’s WPA Mural work displayed in the exhibit. (Note:\u00a0only scale facsimiles of the murals were displayed.)<\/h4>\n

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\"Contemplative<\/a>

Contemplative Life & Active Life (1937)<\/p><\/div>\n

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This was the first WPA work of Peters. Originally the murals were on either side of the auditorium stage at Madison High School. Madison High was demolished in 1983, but the murals were saved and have since been restored and relocated to the Joseph C. Wilson Foundation.<\/h4>\n

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\"The<\/a>

The Early Days of the Erie Canal (1938)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Peters’ only horizontal mural was commissioned for the recently completed Fairport Library (now the Fairport Historical Museum of the Perinton Historical Society), itself a WPA project. The mural measures 41\/2 feet high and 20 feet long.\u00a0Some of Peters’ original preliminary sketches for this mural were on display.<\/h4>\n

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\"Preliminary<\/a>

Preliminary sketches for the “Erie Canal” mural.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Also\u00a0featured at the Memorial Art Gallery, loaned\u00a0from the Library of Congress, \u00a0was the WPA-FAP<\/a><\/span>\u00a0 Rochester poster\u00a0work\u00a0by Erik Hans Krause (1899-1990). Krause created posters on many topics, but here are some notable ones he did for special national health campaign and one generic WPA poster template.<\/h4>\n

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