We see a steamboat on a river, its importance shown via a stack located at the center of Burliuk's composition and by how much space the boat itself occupies--seemingly the width of the river. The watercolor is drawn in a neo-primitive style, especially with the squat figures in foreground. Earth and sky are painted using the same hues; the steamboat incorporates some of them into itself. About the Artist: Among the most accomplished and internationally known of the New Deal Gallery artists, Burliuk called himself “The Father of Russian Futurism” with good reason. He was an important figure in early 20th-century avant-garde circles, collaborating or exhibiting alongside painters like Kandinsky, Picasso, and Rousseau; writing poetry with Mayakovski, Yessenin, and Gorky; and counting as friends composers like Rachmaninoff, Scriabine, Gershwin, and Prokofiev. He painted a portrait of groundbreaking filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein. The multitalented artist—whose name sometimes is spelled Burlyuk—was born in Kharkov, Russia, attended various art schools in Europe, and became an energetic creator of multimedia happenings that anticipate performance art: drinking tea under a suspended piano; staging an exhibition of paintings in a coal mine. His constantly changing style has been characterized as Fauvist, Cubist, Futurist, Social Realist, and Neo-Primitivist. Burliuk lived through the Russian revolutions before relocating to Japan (1920-22) and then eventually to America (1922), claiming to have crossed into Alaska using as his passport a Vanity Fair article about him. He became a US citizen in 1930 and lived the rest of his life on Long Island. Between 1923-1940 he worked as art editor and proofreader for a communist newspaper published in New York called Russkiĭ golos (Russian Voice). Throughout his life Burliuk was a prolific painter (creating an estimated 18,000 pictures), self-published with his wife Marussia the art magazine Color and Rhyme (1931-1966), and wrote several important manifestoes—including “Slap in the Face of Public Taste” (1912). Of particular interest for his two works at the NDG and others from the 1930s is a 1926 manifesto entitled “Universal Camp of Radio Modernists” and its vision of an animistic force in the world that infuses his paintings regardless of style: “Everything—from the tiny bug to a tea-spoon—has its specific soul. The whiskey bottle that was on the table is there still forever, but abstract. Consciousness is the possession not only of man, the insignificant particle of creation, but of Mother Nature as well.” 6 works at the Whitney Museum of American Art. 18 works at the Museum of Modern Art. 16 works at the Ukranian Museum. 399 works at WikiArt. 1 more image at FAP. His papers are at Syracuse University.
This painting displays a park scene using a variety of pastels, dusty colors, and vivid greens. We see a sandy sky and cool-toned trees in the background; the middle ground hosts a hedgerow outlined on the bottom with a vivid row of red flowers. In the foreground, three trees stand in full bloom, with two to the left side framing the wall on the right. The wall has a pot and a sculpture that frame the third tree. A sidewalk cuts in front of this scene. About the Artist: We haven’t located much reliable information about this artist. Bank created 4 works for the Index of American Design, one of which reads: “Unfinished on account of ‘Pink Slip’ September 3rd1937.”
Because of its visible brush strokes, this painting is a highly impressionistic landscape of a rocky coastline meeting the sea. Here, the artist makes use of warm reds and browns to contrast the cool, refreshing quality of the ocean with the sturdy, homeliness of the Earth. About the Artist: Born in Odessa, Russia, Alexandrovich was trained in Belgium and France before immigrating to the US in 1925 (his citizenship sponsor was fellow marine artist Ragnar Olson). At a 1939 show, his art was praised as “bringing to the painting of the sea a sympathetic understanding and a subtlety of expression that set his work apart....Unlike the majority of painters of the sea, he knows the value of mystery and suggestion, and yet with it all contrives to convey a sense of the ocean's resistless weight and might” (New York Sun 29 April 1939: 12). 1 more image at FAP.
An ornate ceramic pot serves as the base for seven light pink flowers. With thick brown stems and plenty of green leaves, the flowers stand strong in the pot filled with dirt. The scene depicted on the pot brings culture and an ornate air to the scene. Against a monochrome backdrop, the painting’s foreground encompasses a tan, stitched mat where the pot and flowers are perched. About the Artist: The son of Irish immigrants, Alger was born in Boston, MA and studied at the Lowell Institute of Design and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Around 1914, he began dividing his time between Massachusetts and showing his work in New York group exhibitions; a 1921 review of the Whitney Studio Club declared that its “chief interest centers about the technical novelty of John Alger. He has painted some sand dunes with a sweeping grace despite the fact that his colors, always modest, are laid down flatly and without accent” (New York Tribune 18 Dec. 1921: 50). Another admiring critic thought Alger had “developed a point of view which represents the utmost in simplification without, however, becoming in any sense of the word an abstractionist” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle 7 Mar. 1926: 66). Alger was a founding member of the Salons of America. In later years, he seems to have taught art lessons in addition to his painting. 5 more images at FAP.
Baumbach’s work depicts a summer landscape in what appears to be a rural farm town from an aerial view. The colors are bright, and cool tone variations of green dominate much of the space. The greens are contrasted by a blue waterway and a yellow field which stretch across the center of the painting, and by several red building structures that sit at the bottom. Rolling hills stretch back into the horizon. Despite the wide view, there is much attention to detail and the painting also features roads, animals, crops, and fences. About the Artist: Born on New York’s Lower East Side, Baumbach was the son of an upholsterer and largely a self-taught painter. His original emphasis was upon upstate landscapes; later, he moved on to increasing abstraction in his work, influenced perhaps by his friends Mark Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb, but always with his own distinct style. Baumbach was among the founders of the radical journal Art Front (1934-1937), created as “a publication which speaks for the artist, battles for his economic security and guides him in his artistic efforts” (Art Front 1.1 [Nov. 1934]: 2.) Later, his name would come up amidst investigations into “subversive organizations” by the House Un-American Activities Committee. After World War II Baumbach taught painting at Brooklyn College. Although highly regarded by fellow artists, popular success eluded him: “Strong willed, allergic to fashion, even to success, he persisted in going his own way, refusing to sell to prospective buyers he thought did not admire the work properly and breaking off relations with galleries usually after only a show or two” (New York Times 4 Jan. 2002). He was the father of writer Jonathan Baumbach and grandfather of film director Noah Baumbach. 1 work at the Whitney Museum of American Art. 1 work at the Hirshorn Museum. 2 works at the Brooklyn College Library. 1 more image at FAP.
We see a river flowing between two banks lined with trees. The trees are mostly bare however, they appear as they are going to start budding. The colors in this painting are cooler--blues and greens--but there is a hint of warm yellow in the lower left corner. About the Artist: Born in Summerville, AK, Abernathy studied at the Art Academy in Cincinnati and later in Europe. She supported herself by teaching art and elocution at Belmont College (TN), Stanford Female College (KY), Columbia Female Institute (TN), the University of Arkansas, and the Florida Female College. At this last instution, when a fire broke out Abernathy guided her students to safety rather than saving her own art and equipment; the Florida legislature passed a special bill to help compensate her loss (The Weekly True Democrat 29 Sept 1905: 1). She studied art for a period in Paris, and her painting “Reverie” was shown at the 1902 Salon des artistes français, described by one reporter as “the full-length figure of a girl seated, with a background of dull blues and yellows. A springtime freshness pervades the picture” (San Francisco Chronicle 26 Oct. 1902: 6). Her works were exhibited at the Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, and the National Academy of Design. Two more images at FAP.
This painting depicts a boxing match, in which one of the boxers successfully knocks out his opponent. The victor, standing upright on the right side sporting turquoise shorts, looks confident and strong as he watches his opponent on the ground along with the referee. His opponent is curled up on the floor of the ring, his face downturned and covered by his arms. The colors are vibrant, and the work’s shadows create a realistic effect. Braverman's painting takes on new significance when considered in relation to economic conditions during the 1930s. About the Artist: Born in New York City, Braverman’s subsequent life tracks alongside the changing fortunes of radical politics in America. He appears to have lived in Chicago, studying in Paris with André L’hote, but he also was listed as Chairman of the People’s Institute in Toledo, OH during 1911. Perhaps his debut as an artist began in 1907, at age 19, with political cartoons published in To-Morrow Magazine: on subjects like plutocracy and class-based sexual politics. During the 1910s “Barney” was Associate Editor and Circulation Manager for The Progressive Woman in Chicago. It was founded as The Socialist Woman in 1907 by Josephine Conger-Kaneko and in 1913 would become The Coming Nation before folding in 1914. He produced the magazine’s masthead much of its political art: on child labor, domestic work, and women in trade unions. Meanwhile, Braverman also was drawing political cartoons for The Masses (1912) and publishing pamphlets like “Suffragists, Watch Out for the Wolf!” (1913). After passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, and as socialist unity fragmented under the duress of Palmer Raids and systematic anti-red legislation, Braverman became disillusioned and moved into poster art and advertising. By the 1920s he worked for the Curtis Company agency in Detroit, MI and then in 1926 the Hamman group in Oakland, CA. During his time in Detroit, Braverman played an important role in smuggling copies of James Joyce’s banned novel Ulysses. In 1922, the novelist Ernest Hemingway—who knew Braverman—suggested an arrangement with publisher Sylvia Beach: she would ship 300 books to Windsor, Ontario, where Braverman had rented a room; he would smuggle them across the US border individually, then re-bundle them and ship via a private express company. He asked only to be reimbursed for his expenses (no fee charged) at a time of heavy border patrols during Prohibition. Historian Kevin Birmingham writes that “it required him to break the law every time he crossed the border with a copy of Ulysses, possessed a copy for distribution in Michigan and shipped the book across state lines. He risked a five-thousand-dollar fine and five years in prison, but he would do it anyway” (The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses 236-237). Later Braverman created works for the Federal Art Project, including “Down and Out” (1937)—perhaps modeled on the boxing paintings of George Bellows, like “Dempsey and Firpo” (1924). One critic reviewing a 1936 group show complained that Braverman’s “static figures against his dynamic backgrounds drop his picture to a poster level...he suffers from commercial art influence, with its false emphasis on showiness” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle 9 Feb. 1936: 40). But Braverman’s work always had been grounded in the striking image, and postwar Pop Art soon would incorporate both political and commercial iconography. Braverman always had a great interest in films, during the 1940s working upon an authorized biography of the director D.W. Griffith that never was published. He lived the last years of his life in St. Paul, MN.
The depiction of the foreground illustrates a rural setting in the midst of an urbanizing town in the background – a changing sociocultural climate in New York. Abernathy uses a quick, painterly style to show that the brushstrokes are an instrumental part of the canvas, something purposeful given the context of her formal training. She exercises her education in the way she portrays the depth of the painting – the contrast between the two portrayals of different lifestyles emphasizes a changing direction among a rural discourse of life. About the Artist: Born in Summerville, AK, Abernathy studied at the Art Academy in Cincinnati and later in Europe. She supported herself by teaching art and elocution at Belmont College (TN), Stanford Female College (KY), Columbia Female Institute (TN), the University of Arkansas, and the Florida Female College. At this last instution, when a fire broke out Abernathy guided her students to safety rather than saving her own art and equipment; the Florida legislature passed a special bill to help compensate her loss (The Weekly True Democrat 29 Sept 1905: 1). She studied art for a period in Paris, and her painting “Reverie” was shown at the 1902 Salon des artistes français, described by one reporter as “the full-length figure of a girl seated, with a background of dull blues and yellows. A springtime freshness pervades the picture” (San Francisco Chronicle 26 Oct. 1902: 6). Her works were exhibited at the Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, and the National Academy of Design. Two more digital images from FAP<o:p></o:p>
The subject of this painting is a vase of white flowers. The flowers themselves are large and take up a significant portion of the area, but are balanced out by a multicolored vase underneath. The vase seems to have the pattern of some sort of animal in a variety of colors. The background is beige and displays some shadows, indicating curvature or a corner. The flower and its vase are the only subjects in this painting. About the Artist: There is some contradictory information about this NDG artist, including the Federal Art Project listing his paintings as “Earl Godwin”—perhaps the confusion due to a prominent journalist having that name. Godwin Earl was teaching at the Los Angeles Art Institute as of 1928. For the 1930 census, in Los Angeles, Earl gave his birthdate as 1865 and his birthplace as Argentina; for the 1940 census, in New York, he gave his birthdate as 1860 and birthplace as New York. The 1860 birthdate seems more likely, since in 1941 he penned an epigram entitled “I’m Over Eighty”: “I am very tender hearted, so / I want to gently drop, / Into a vat of boiling oil, / The pest who calls me ‘Pop’ ” (New York Sun 11 Feb. 1941: 84). Everything that is known about Earl points toward a talented but curmudgeonly painter struggling amidst the Great Depression, in part due to his conservative standards of what constituted art. In response to MoMA’s plan to bring art supplies to soldiers in camps, Earl called it “another futile attempt to make people believe that art is something one can produce after a few days’ practice, as one would learn to whitewash the garden fence at home.” He instead argued for rigorous training (Godwin Earl, “Dark View of Art,” letter to editor, New York Sun 22 April 1942: 20). 11 more images at FAP.
This watercolor painting is a landscape of the quintessential farm in rural America. The most striking objects are the bright colored buildings that contrast with lighter-colored foliage and land. The composition is quite empty, a majority of the space being filled with the land and sky. The buildings are composed of basic shapes with sharp angles but the rest of the painting uses large brush strokes to create a landscape that appears to flow across the canvas. The vehicle that hides in the corner represents the change from traditional farming methods that clashed with the new innovations of the 1930s. About the Artist: Like NDG artists Lucie Bayard and A.E. Cederquist, Cunning was a student of the famous artist-teacher Robert Henri at the New York School of Art. He remained close to this circle of artists via the Whitney Studio Club, and several of his works were featured in Whitney Bienniels or museum collections: “Old Dock” (1927); “Sunset—New York Bay” (1932); “Roadside Market” (1934). His 1934 painting “Manhattan Skyline,” created for the Public Works of Art Program, is at Smithsonian American Art Museum. 1 work at Whitney Museum of American Art. 2 works at the Brooklyn Museum. 1 more image at FAP.