The WPA is well known by those who are acquainted with the Depression Era of US history. It is especially famous for hiring unemployed artists to create public murals for government buildings. Even when I was young, I knew about the WPA because one of the murals was in the post office lobby in my hometown.
Only years later did I learn about the Index of American Design, which was a companion agency that existed from 1935 to 1942. It too hired unemployed artists (some sources say 400, others say 1000) for the purpose of making 18,257 watercolor paintings (most or all of which survive), as a means of documenting hand-crafted folk art, functional wares, and decorative components from American history, beginning with the colonial age. Unlike the post office murals, no one remembers the names of the Index artists, who were more or less ignored (dismissed as craftsmen, not artists) who had previously been employed as commercial artists, designers and illustrators.
Looking closely at the Index works, I was soon persuaded that the work of those artists is surely as deserving as the WPA muralists. That led to producing the posters. I have never exhibited them in a gallery setting, but I have just now produced a twelve-minute video talk, called Index of American Design: Commemorating Arts and Crafts, by which I share my discoveries on YouTube at this online link.
Take a look. Hopefully, you will enjoy it, and will share the news of its release with artists, designers, historians and others.
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| Poster / Roy R. Behrens © 2022 |
