Barbara W. Coles Trader
American art went through extraordinary inventions and changes during the early 20th century, and the paintings progressed through a variety of experiments. The Grassroots Artists/Social Realists’ Movement attacked the injustices and dehumanization of the industrial/urban life America. The Social Realistists’ painters believed that art and the artists must be engaged with the contemporary world; perhaps, the vigorous paintings might have been campaign posters for the active reform movements which spread throughout the United States in the 1930’s. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the U.S.A. President in 1933. The country was in an economic disaster. At least, a quarter of the labor force was unemployed; it was a great depression. The New Deal gradually put the economy back to recovery progressively.
Raphael Soyer painted a portrait in 1936,
Reading from Left to Right
which depicted the homelessness. Some teaching techniques will be in the lesson plans about the paintings, comparing the urban problems of today and yesteryears such as: the homeless and the two most deadly fires in the Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, New York (Sunday, March 25, 1990 (87 people) at 3:40 a.m.: Saturday, March 25, 1911 (146 people) at 4:30 p.m.).
Hence, the artists of the Social Realists believed that photography must be instrumental in the
Contemporary World.
A group of outstanding photographers were under the direction of the farm Security Administration. They were Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Carl Mydans and Ben Shahn (also a painter). The photographers traveled throughout the country to produce stunning documents of rural families and poverty in Magazines/newspapers. Ben Shahn returned to his easel later years.
Journalism and the arts became very popular in North America. Architects designed housing projects. Photographers photographed pictures of urban tragedies, poverty, ruined farmers, eroded land the like. Writers compiled state and regional histories. Composers and playwrights were commissioned to create symphonies and plays for the families/people who had previously known the secondhand pleasures of recorded music, radios, and movies. Painters were commissioned by the government to cover the walls of public buildings with murals; they also supplied pictures for town/city museums, schools and traveling exhibitions. I will introduce the preceding vocations to the students when teaching
Career Awareness
. The students will write
ads and articles
for their school newspapers/magazines. The students, who are very artistic, will design and draw blueprints of their creative buildings/vehicles/inventions. They will do paintings for homework which include murals, cartoons and comic strips portraying family members/friends in a positive manner. The students will be given the opportunities to take photographs in school and away from school,
accentuating the positive
to build selfesteem.
I will teach the students that family structure did and still vary from regiontoregion different decades. Families serve as transmitters of culture to the youths. Migration and immigration of people from different cultural backgrounds have influenced each other. Social and political systems are food based on people’s beliefs. The academic, artistic and recreational activities of people are reflections of their values and beliefs.
The collaborative/cooperative teaching and learning activities are to extend and enhance students’ reading of literature; to interpret paintings toward a better understanding of cultural differences and the eras; to enhance academic and social attitudes.