Dictators of both the left and the right persecuted modern art in the early 20th century. Join the Great Neck Library for the final part of this 3-part series, Art Under the Dictators and Under the Democrat, as we explore the reasons for its unpopularity with the demagogues and its eventual triumph in America during the postwar period.
The U. S. government-subsidized art under the Works Progress Administration during the 1930s, but unlike the government-sponsored art of the Stalinist state or Hitler’s Nazi government, subject matter and style were not dictated or officially prescribed. The result was the political radicalization of artists under the influence of the Mexican muralists, the formation of the Artists’ Union, the John Reed Clubs, and the American Artists’ Congress. But with the postwar rise of abstract art and the anti-communist hysteria of the early 1950s, much of this heritage was lost or forgotten.
Presenter Dennis Raverty is a speaker, author, and art historian who for decades has delighted audiences with lively presentations at libraries, churches, synagogues, hostels, and business lunches on a variety of topics in the history of art, from the Italian Renaissance to the Harlem Renaissance. His articles and criticism have appeared in Art Journal, Art in America, The International Review of African American Art, Art Criticism, The New Art Examiner, Prospects: An Annual of American Studies, Source: Notes in the History of Art, and Art Papers, where he was a contributing editor. He authored four entries for the most recent edition of the Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, published by Oxford University Press (2011).
Art under Roosevelt during the Great Depression lecture will be at the Main Library Community Room at 159 Bayview Avenue, Great Neck, NY 11023, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. Registration is not required. First come, first seated. For more information, please contact Great Neck Library at (516) 466-8055 or email adultprogramming@greatnecklibrary.org
Information provided by the Great Neck Library.
