Sole and Joint Artistry
To cope with socioeconomic hardships during the Great Depression, Americans envisioned self-empowerment in vastly different political and cultural ways—often with joint communities and rugged individualism as the antipodes. Artists were no different; they embodied work within communities for collective action or as the intrepid pioneer of their lives. Public murals commissioned by the Works Progress Administration in post offices and schools often depicted workers, farmers, and factory laborers not as isolated individuals, but as interconnected parts of a larger social fabric contributing to national recovery. These same artists often worked closely together, sharing studio space or lithograph facilities, and that influenced their “individual” works as well. Rural landscape paintings seemed a world apart from this developing social fabric. Their tranquil scenes of quiet self-sufficiency reflected the moral core of rural life: productivity, frugality, and courage. For some artists, the appeal of individual creation was grounded in the American archetype of self-made success: a unique style or vision seen as truer to the nation’s history of independence (Atherton).
Economically, the desire for self-sufficiency was less realistic as demographics shifted away from rural communities and small towns. Those who wished to pioneer their way to wealth, or at least comfortable living, realized it would take much more than resilience in a rural town. Instead, there emerged a new approach to masculinity, where men acted together under a new social contract for financial prosperity not possible alone (Abbott). Artists were part of the migration to cities for easier accessibility to materials, community, and subject matter, since the country town could not readily supply every material resource a career relied upon (Atherton).
The inefficacy of stubbornly relying on rugged individualism for prosperity is critiqued in the urban setting of I Am an American, where a man struggles to roll his cart of belongings but chooses to persist alone, however bravely. The lithograph’s creator, Raymond Steth, followed a different path: he collaborated with other Black printmakers in Philadelphia, who developed innovative new techniques and organized group shows (Smith). The rural landscape of Old Glass Factory, in its contained state of abundance, conjures images of self-made independence. Its rolling hills and gorgeous foliage are a world away from Steth’s print, but the scene lacks any sign of human activity. The painting’s title alludes to some earlier economy; now, the factory has become a nostalgic landmark.
Works Consulted
--Abbott, Philip. “Titans/Planners, Bohemians/Revolutionaries: Male Empowerment in the 1930s.” Journal of American Studies 40.3 (2006): 463–85. JSTOR. Link
-- Atherton, Lewis E. “The Midwestern Country Town: Myth and Reality.” Agricultural History 26.3 (1952): 73–80. JSTOR. Link
-- Smith, Synatra. “Raymond Steth.” Four Elements blog 14 April 2022. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Link