The Great Depression of the 1930’s left 12 million US citizens unemployed. FDR’s New Deal created the Works Project Administration or WPA in 1935. A few months after the WPA was created the The Federal Arts Project (FAP) was established. The Federal Arts Project would employ sculptors, photographers, painters and graphic design artists (including silkscreen and lithography), muralists, writers, actors and musicians to produce works of art for public buildings like community centers, libraries and hospitals. 2,566 murals were created along with 100,000 easel paintings, 300,000 fine art prints and 18,000 sculptures. The total government investment came to $35,000,000. Many of the works of art that were created during this period were labeled Social Realism because they depicted the social, racial and economic struggles of the times.
Dorothea Lange, who was the wife of painter Maynard Dixon, was hired by The Farm Security Administration in 1937 as a field photographer. Lange’s assignment was to document the negative effects of the depression on sharecroppers, poor rural homesteaders and migrant workers. Lange never wanted her photographs to be classified as art. She saw them as a documentation to enact social awareness and change and to bring to light the conditions that were causing human suffering.
From 1934-1943 the WPA Poster Program was in full swing. Under the supervision of the visual arts section of the FAP, the posters were printed and designed by unemployed artists. These posters (lithographs and silkscreens) were used to bring about public awareness of community events and meetings, public health issues, social services, travel, theater and education. 2 million posters were printed from 35,000 designs. Today only 2,000 posters are known to exist and 900 of them are stored in the Library of Congress. As part of this program the Department of the Interior National Parks Service created a Poster Program in 1938. A combined 13 national parks and monuments were chosen to be represented by a poster. The intention was to bring awareness to these parks and to encourage citizens to travel and visit them. The 13 chosen were Grand Teton, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Mount Rainier, Petrified Forest, Fort Marion, Zion, Lassen, Wind Cave, Great Smoky Mountains, Glacier and Bandelier. One poster would advertise the National Park Service bringing the count to 14. Approximately 1,400 posters were printed and were sold to the public for 12 cents a piece. Today only 42 original prints have been found and 5 are in the Library of Congress.
Over the course of Peter’s art career he had the opportunity to work with a few lithography studios. In 1977 he worked with New Leaf Press, which was operated by the A.D.I Gallery in San Francisco, CA. He produced two editions of 4 color lithographs, of which 2 prints are currently in the Brooklyn Art Museum’s permanent collection. The head printer, David Salgado, would then leave New Leaf and start his own business Trillium Graphics. Peter would go on to produce a few more lithographs with Trillium, including the 1991 lithograph titled Sumner Butte (Grand Canyon). We have few of these available for sale. You find an image of Sumner Butte by perusing our IG site linked on the “About'“ page. If you are interested we are offering them for $500 a piece, unframed. The price includes shipping anywhere in the USA. This lithograph is in the permanent collection at the Springfield Art Museum in Missouri, The Museum of the Southwest in Midland, Texas, The Tucson Art Museum and the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff.
In 1994 Peter, and a group of local artists, pooled their money together and bought their own lithography press. The press, a Dickinson Combination Press, was about 6 feet long and weighed about a half a ton. It had to be delivered on a flatbed truck. Peter experimented with pulling black and white lithography prints which he would then hand color with oil paint or pastel crayon. The subject matter of these lithographs was female nudes and some landscapes. We have a few of these available for sale too if anyone is interested and would like to see pictures feel free to contact us.