Loans to: Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Hugo Gellert (American, 1892–1985)
Daily Worker, c. 1935
Lithograph, 38 1/4 x 25” (97.2 x 63.5 cm)

Just opened at The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the exhibition Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s (September 7– December 10, 2023). Organized by Allison Rudnick, Associate Curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints, the exhibition examines “a decade of political and social upheaval in the United States, and the art and visual culture of the time [that] reflected the unsettled environment.”

We are delighted to be able to support this exhibition with the loan of posters by Hugo Gellert and Lester Beall, pictured here. Additional posters and periodicals formerly in the collection, which were recently acquired by the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, are also reproduced in the catalogue, and appear below.

Loans to the exhibition:

Hugo Gellert (American, 1892–1985)
The Communist Party, c.1935
Lithograph, 37 15/16 x 25 3/8” (96.3 x 64.4 cm)

Lester Beall (American, 1903–1969)
Left: Light. Rural Electrification Administration, 1937
Silkscreen, 40 x 30” (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
Right: Radio. Rural Electrification Administration, 1937
Silkscreen, 40 x 30” (101.6 x 76.2 cm)

Lester Beall (American, 1903–1969)
Left: Running Water. Rural Electrification Administration, 1937
Silkscreen, 40 x 30” (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
Right: Wash Day. Rural Electrification Administration, 1937
Silkscreen, 40 x 30” (101.6 x 76.2 cm)

Reproduced in the catalogue (formerly Merrill C. Berman Collection; now Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles):

J. Louis Engdahl (American, 1884–1932), editor 
Periodical: Labor Defender, various issues 1930–1932
Each: Lithograph, 12 1/8 x 9 1/8” (30.8 x 23.2 cm)

Left: Ben Shahn (1898–1969)
Poster: Years of Dust. Resettlement Administration Rescues
Victims Restores Land to Proper Use, 1936
Lithograph, 38 1/4 x 25” (97.1 x 63.5 cm)
Right: Bernarda Shahn Bryson (1903–2004)
Poster: A Mule and a Plow. Resettlement Administration.
Small Loans Give Farmers a New Start, 1935
Original color photo–offset, 42 x 28 3/4” (106.7 x 73 cm)

Dorothy Waugh (1896–1996)
Left: Poster: Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: National Parks, 1934
Lithograph, 39 7/8 x 26 7/8” (101.2 x 68.2 cm)
Right: Poster: The Lure of the National Parks, 1934
Lithograph, 41 3/4 x 28 3/4” (106 x 73 cm)

Left: Harry Herzog
Poster: See America. Visit the National Parks, c. 1936–1940
Silkscreen, 28 x 22” (71.1 x 55.8 cm)
Right: Frank S. Nicholson
Poster: Wild Life. The National Parks Preserve All Life, c. 1936–1940
Silkscreen, 28 x 22” (71.1 x 55.8 cm)

September 12, 2023