A Rendezvous with Destiny: 1930s American Art, the new online exhibition from Helicline Fine Art, begins today, September 7 through November 5, 2023.
The exhibition features a variety of artistic styles and subject matters from urban, industrial and rural to abstract, people working and scenes of everyday life. For New York City based artists, the City itself was glorified on canvas, paper and bronze. Several of the artists who thrived during that period are still well known today, but most are obscure. The exhibition, of predominantly 1930s artworks, features that range.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new exhibition, “Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s” celebrates the American spirit during the depression era and serves as the inspiration for Helicline Fine Art’s new exhibition.
After the stock market crash of 1929, Americans experienced a time of great transition at every level of society. After a terrible slump, the men and women of the country came together to rebuild the economy, their lives and their spirits.
For the first time, our government paid artists to create. To this day, many Federal buildings – post offices, court houses, schools, hospitals, administrative buildings – still have the murals of WPA artists emblazoned on the walls and statues standing in courtyards. The work of these artists reflected that renewal.
The artists of that generation are being rediscovered in 2023 and for generations into the future, thanks to the Met’s new exhibition, and galleries that keep the modernist art flame burning.
Helicline’s proprietors, Keith Sherman and Roy Goldberg, recall discovering the WPA period. “We had just moved into our first apartment, constructed in 1929, on the Upper West Side. In attempting to furnish our home we realized we had no sense of style or taste. We spent time in the Strand Book Store to see what homes looked like in the 20s and 30s,” said Goldberg. “We discovered Art Deco, the Machine Age, the WPA and more. We spent time in museums, art fairs and something that has disappeared from the cultural landscape, antique shows, where we developed our eye. Today we are collectors turned dealers still collecting. The WPA period is in our hearts,” added Sherman.
 Stuart Davis (1892-1964), N.Y. Street Signs, 1938, 11 1/4 x 15 1/4. Gouache on paper. Signed lower right.
 and a Reginald Marsh depicting the Brooklyn Bridge, mural studies, and a Mervin Jules oil of a tailor with astonishing perspective. |