List of WPA artists
Encyclopedia
Below is an incomplete List of Works Progress Administration artists who worked for the WPA Federal Art Project
:
Federal Art Project
The Federal Art Project was the visual arts arm of the Great Depression-era New Deal Works Progress Administration Federal One program in the United States. It operated from August 29, 1935, until June 30, 1943. Reputed to have created more than 200,000 separate works, FAP artists created...
:
- Berenice AbbottBerenice AbbottBerenice Abbott , born Bernice Abbott, was an American photographer best known for her black-and-white photography of New York City architecture and urban design of the 1930s.-Youth:...
- Gertrude AbercrombieGertrude AbercrombieGertrude Abercrombie was an American painter based in Chicago. Called "the queen of the bohemian artists," Abercrombie was involved in the Chicago jazz scene and friends with musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Sarah Vaughan, whose music inspired her own creative work.-Personal...
- Maxine AlbroMaxine AlbroMaxine Albro was an American painter, muralist and lithographer. She was one of the few female artists commissioned under the New Deal's Federal Art Project, a program launched during the Great Depression that also employed the likes of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, among other painters who...
- Charles AlstonCharles AlstonCharles Henry Alston was an African-American painter, sculptor, illustrator, muralist and teacher who lived and worked in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem. Alston was active in the Harlem Renaissance; Alston was the first African American supervisor for the Works Progress Administration's...
(1907 - 1977) - Bruce ArissBruce ArissBruce Wallace Ariss, Jr. was an American artist and writer.-Life:Bruce Ariss has been influential in Monterey, California, where a street and theatre have been named after him. In addition, he has numerous murals there, at least some of which were 1930s Works Progress Administration projects...
- Victor Mikhail Arnautoff
- Whitney Atchley
- Leonard BahrLeonard BahrLeonard Marion Bahr was a prolific painter of portraits and murals, an illustrator, as well as a highly regarded painting professor for 52 years at the Maryland Institute College of Art ....
- Henry BannarnHenry Bannarn Henry Wilmer "Mike" Bannarn was an African-American artist, best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance period.-Biography:He was born in Wetumpka, Hughes County, Oklahoma on July 17, 1910...
- Norman Barr
- William BaziotesWilliam BaziotesWilliam Baziotes was an American painter influenced by Surrealism and was a contributor to Abstract Expressionism.-Life and career:...
(1912 - 1963) - Romare BeardenRomare BeardenRomare Bearden was an African American artist and writer. He worked in several media including cartoons, oils, and collage.-Education:...
(1911 - 1988) - Thomas Hart BentonThomas Hart Benton (painter)Thomas Hart Benton was an American painter and muralist. Along with Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, he was at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement. His fluid, almost sculpted paintings showed everyday scenes of life in the United States...
(1889 - 1975) - Aaron BerkmanAaron BerkmanAaron Berkman was an American Social Realist and Modern painter who was involved in the Federal Art Project, which was the visual arts arm of the Great Depression-era New Deal. Although born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1900, he later moved to New York City in 1929.- Biography :Aaron Berkman was...
(1900 - 1991) - Jane Clara Howard BerlandinaJane Clara Howard BerlandinaJane Berlandina initiated her artistic studies in France at the École Nationale des Arts Decoratifs. She soon became a pupil of the famed Raoul Dufy...
- Henry Bernstein
- Leon BibelLeon BibelLeon Bibel was an American painter and printmaker during the Great Depression. His themes were the social condition of workers and the politics of protest and war, although cityscapes and landscapes were included among his works. He later developed works in wood of especially Jewish themes...
- George BiddleGeorge BiddleGeorge Biddle was an American artist best known for his social realism, combat art, and his strong advocacy of government-sponsored art projects...
(1885 - 1973) - Dorothy BlockDorothy BlockDorothy Block was an American painter. She was born in Brooklyn, New York. She studied and taught at the Art Students League of New York. She worked as part of the Federal Arts Project. Her collected papers are stored in the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art.Her husband was Robert Dublirer...
- Samuel BookatzSamuel BookatzSamuel Bookatz was a prolific painter who defied the demands of his blue collar, Orthodox Jewish upbringing to study art in the United States and Europe...
- Dorr BothwellDorr BothwellDorr Hodgson Bothwell was an American artist, designer, educator, and world-traveller. She was born in San Francisco, California. She began her art career at the California School of Fine Arts in 1921, under the tutelage of Gottardo Piazzoni and Rudolf Schaeffer.- Travels :Bothwell's travels...
- Tom Boutis
- Raymond Sceptre Boynton
- King D. Brock (1912 - 1995)
- Charles Ragland BunnellCharles Ragland BunnellCharles Ragland Bunnell , was an American painter, printmaker, and muralist. He moved to Colorado Springs in 1915 and was thereafter associated with that city. As a WPA artist from 1934 to 1941 he executed many commissioned murals in a sturdy, somewhat abstracted figurative style...
(1897 - 1968) - Flavio Cabral (1916-1990)
- Walter Antonius Carnelli (1905-1959)
- Samuel CashwanSamuel CashwanSamuel Adolph Cashwan was an American sculptor.- History :Cashwan was born to Jewish parents in Cherkasy, Ukraine, Russian Empire. His parents left Russia and emigrated to New York City in 1906. Cashwan began his art studies after the family moved to Detroit in 1916. His first exposure came from...
- Edouard Chassaing
- Grant Wright Christian
- Eleanor CoenEleanor CoenEleanor Coen established her art career during the great depression. In the Works Progress Administration Federal Arts Project she and her husband Max Kahn helped forge a tradition of twentieth century color lithography and painting. She was born in 1916 in Normal, Illinois...
- Max Arthur Cohn
- Jesse CornplanterJesse CornplanterJesse J. Cornplanter was a Seneca artist and author. His Seneca name was Hayonhwonhish. As an author he wrote Legends of the Longhouse, which records many Iroquois traditional stories.-Personal:...
, 1889-1957 - Francis CrissFrancis CrissFrancis Hyman Criss was an American painter. Criss's style is associated with the American Precisionists like Charles Demuth and his friend Charles Sheeler.Criss was born in London and immigrated with his family at age 4...
- Rinaldo CuneoRinaldo CuneoRinaldo Cuneo , dubbed the Painter of San Francisco, was an American artist known for his landscape paintings and murals.-Early life and education:...
- John Steuart CurryJohn Steuart CurryJohn Steuart Curry was an American painter whose career spanned from 1924 until his death. He was noted for his paintings depicting life in his home state, Kansas...
- (His murals were funded by the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and SculptureSection of Painting and SculptureThe Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture , commonly known as "the Section," was established in 1934 and administered by the Procurement Division of the United States Department of the Treasury....
(later known as The Section of Fine Arts) and not the WPA) - Philip Campbell CurtisPhilip Campbell CurtisPhilip Campbell Curtis was an American painter best remembered for his surrealist-inspired style scenes often featuring figures in Victorian dress. He was also the founding director of the Phoenix Art Center, which became the Phoenix Art Museum...
- Stuart DavisStuart Davis (painter)Stuart Davis , was an early American modernist painter. He was well known for his jazz influenced, proto pop art paintings of the 1940s and 1950s, bold, brash, and colorful as well as his ashcan pictures in the early years of the 20th century.-Biography:He was born in Philadelphia to Edward Wyatt...
(1892 - 1964) - Willem de KooningWillem de KooningWillem de Kooning was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands....
- Ross Dickinson
- Burgoyne Diller (1906 - 1965)
- Werner Drewes (1899 - 1985)
- Santiago Martinez DelgadoSantiago Martínez DelgadoSantiago Martínez Delgado was a Colombian painter, sculptor, art historian and writer. He established a reputation as a prominent muralist during the 1940s and is also known for his watercolors, oil paintings, illustrations and woodcarvings....
- Augustus William Dunbier
- Philip EvergoodPhilip EvergoodPhilip Howard Francis Dixon Evergood was an American painter, etcher, lithographer, sculptor, illustrator and writer. He was particularly active during the Depression and World War II era.-Life:...
(1901 - 1973) - Claire FalkensteinClaire FalkensteinClaire Falkenstein was an American sculptor, painter, printmaker, jewelry designer, and teacher, most renowned for her often large-scale abstract metal and glass public sculptures.-Early life and education:...
(1908 – 1997) - Leon Garland (1896 - 1941)
- Lee GatchLee GatchLee Gatch , an American artist, was born in a rural community near Baltimore. He graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in the early 1920s and then studied in Europe for a few years before returning to the United States...
- Todros GellerTodros GellerTodros Geller was a Ukrainian American artist and teacher best known as a master printmaker and a leading artist among Chicago’s art community.-Early life and education:...
(Registered in Illinois) - Hugo GellertHugo GellertHugo Gellert was a Hungarian-American illustrator and muralist. A committed radical, much of Gellert's work is agitational in nature and distinctive in style, considered by some art critics as among the best political work of the first half of the 20th Century.-Early years:Hugo Gellert was born...
(1892 - 1985) - Arshile GorkyArshile GorkyArshile Gorky was an Armenian-born American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. As such, his works were often speculated to have been informed by the suffering and loss he experienced of the Armenian genocide.-Early life:...
(1904 - 1948) - Adolph GottliebAdolph GottliebAdolph Gottlieb was an American abstract expressionist painter, sculptor and graphic artist.-Biography:Gottlieb was born in New York to Jewish parents. From 1920-1921 he studied at the Art Students League of New York, after which he traveled in France and Germany for a year...
(1903 - 1974) - Harry GottliebHarry GottliebHarry Gottlieb was a painter, screen printer, lithographer, and educator based in New York City.-Biography:Harry Gottlieb was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1895. He immigrated to America in 1907, and his family settled in Minneapolis....
- William GropperWilliam GropperWilliam Victor "Bill" Gropper , was a U.S. cartoonist, painter, lithographer, and muralist. A committed radical, Gropper is best known for the political work which he contributed to such left wing publications as The Revolutionary Age, The Liberator, The New Masses, The Worker, and The Morning...
(1897 - 1977) - Philip GustonPhilip GustonPhilip Guston was a notable painter and printmaker in the New York School, which included many of the Abstract expressionists, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning...
(1913 - 1980) - Jules Halfant
- Armin O. Hansen
- Marsden HartleyMarsden HartleyMarsden Hartley was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist.-Early life and education:Hartley was born in Lewiston, Maine, where his English parents had settled. He was the youngest of nine children. His mother died when he was eight, and his father remarried four years later to Martha...
(1877 - 1943) - Donal HordDonal HordDonal Hord , an American sculptor, was born Donald Horr in Prentice, Wisconsin. His parents divorced when he was about 6 years old; and around that time his mother changed his name, taking the second "d" from "Donald" and substituting it for the second "r" in "Horr", thus creating the name Donal...
- Milton HornMilton HornMilton Horn is a Russian American sculptor and artist known for work that, according to a 1957 citation of honor from the American Institute of Architects, demonstrated "the truth that architecture and sculpture are not two separate arts but, in the hands of sympathetic collaborators, one and the...
- Max KahnMax KahnMax Kahn was a lithographer, painter and sculptor born in Slonim, Belarus in 1902. He worked until age 100 and died in 2005 at the age of 103...
(1902–2005) - Jacob KainenJacob KainenJacob Kainen was an American painter and printmaker. He is also known as an art historian, writingbooks on John Baptist Jackson and the etchings of Canaletto...
(1907–2001) - Morris KantorMorris KantorMorris Kantor was a Russian-born American painter based in the New York City area. Born in Minsk in 1896, Kantor was brought to the United States as a child in 1906. He made his home in West Nyack, New York for much of his life, and died there in 1974...
(1896 - 1974) - Dong Moy Chu Kingman
- Albert KotinAlbert KotinAlbert Kotin belonged to the early generation of New York School Abstract Expressionist artists whose artistic innovation by the 1950s had been recognized across the Atlantic, including Paris...
(1907-1980) - Gwendolyn KnightGwendolyn KnightGwendolyn Clarine Knight was an African American artist from Barbados, in the West Indies.Gwendolyn Knight painted throughout her life, but did not start seriously exhibiting her work until the 1970s. Her first retrospective when she was nearly eighty years old...
- Lee KrasnerLee KrasnerLee Krasner was an influential abstract expressionist painter in the second half of the 20th century. On October 25, 1945, she married artist Jackson Pollock, who was also influential in the Abstract Expressionism movement....
- Jacob LawrenceJacob LawrenceJacob Lawrence was an American painter; he was married to fellow artist Gwendolyn Knight. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", though by his own account the primary influence was not so much French art as the shapes and colors of Harlem.Lawrence is among the best-known twentieth...
(1917 - 2000) - Joseph LeBoit
- Tom LeaThomas C. Lea, IIIThomas Calloway "Tom" Lea, III was a noted American muralist, illustrator, artist, war correspondent, novelist, and historian....
(1907-2001) - Norman LewisNorman Lewis (artist)Norman W. Lewis was an African-American painter, scholar, and teacher. He is associated with Abstract Expressionism. Lewis was African-American, of Caribbean descent.-Early life and career:...
(1909 - 1979) - Ernest Limbach
- Louis LinckLouis LinckLouis Linck was born in Paris, and emigrated to the United States in 1926. During his lifetime of sculpting he worked for a number of private clients as well as the WPA , and the International College of Surgeons...
- Abraham LishinskyAbraham LishinskyAbraham Lishinsky is an American artist of the 20th Century, a painter and playwright, best known for seven murals completed for the federally funded agencies of the New Deal programs of the 1930s and 1940s....
(1905-1982) - Lucile LloydLucile LloydLucile Lloyd was an American muralist.Lloyd was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. She worked in her father's studio and apprenticed in his stained-glass and textile design shop. She attended school at the Woman's Art School at Cooper Union in New York City and won two scholarships to the Art Students...
- Michael LoewMichael LoewMichael Loew was an American Abstract Expressionist artist who was born in New York City.In the late 1920s, Loew studied at the Art Students League with the Ashcan School and was a recipient of a Sadie A. May Fellowship which allowed Loew to continue his studies in France...
- Conrad Marca-RelliConrad Marca-RelliConrad Marca-Relli was an American artist who belonged to the early generation of New York School Abstract Expressionist artists whose artistic innovation by the 1950s had been recognized across the Atlantic, including Paris...
(1913 - 2000) - John MarinJohn MarinJohn Marin was an early American modernist artist. He is known for his abstract landscapes and watercolors.-Biography:...
(1870 - 1953) - Jan MatulkaJan MatulkaJan Matulka was a Czech-American modern artist originally from Bohemia. Matulka's style would range from Abstract expressionism to landscapes, sometimes in the same day.-Early life:...
(1890 - 1972) - Paul MeltsnerPaul MeltsnerPaul Raphael Meltsner was an American artist who was widely recognized for his WPA era paintings and lithographs, and who was later known for his iconic portraits of celebrities in the performing arts.-Education and training:...
(1905-1966) - Hugh Mesibov
- Ed Millman (1907–1964)
- Carl Morris (1911 – 1993)
- Jo MoraJo MoraJoseph Jacinto "Jo" Mora was an Uruguayan-born American cartoonist, illustrator and cowboy, who lived with the Hopi and wrote extensively about his experiences in California. He was an artist-historian, sculptor, painter, photographer, illustrator, muralist and author...
(1876 - 1947) - Louise Berliawsky NevelsonLouise Berliawsky NevelsonLouise Nevelson was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. Born in Czarist Russia, she emigrated with her family to the United States in the early 20th century when she was three years old. Nevelson learned English at school, as she...
- Frank NuderscherFrank NuderscherFrank Bernard Nuderscher was an American illustrator, muralist, and painter of the American Impressionism style. He was called the "dean of St. Louis artists" for his leadership in the Missouri art community....
(1880-1959) - Albert Pels
- Girolamo Piccoli
- Sanford PlummerSanford PlummerSanford Plummer was a Seneca narrative watercolor painter from New York.-Background:Sanford Plummer was born on 1 November 1905 on the Allegany Reservation, Red House, Cattaraugus, New York. His parents were Clarence Plummer and Nellie Kennedy...
(1905-1974) - Charles PollockCharles PollockCharles Cecil Pollock was an American painter and eldest brother of Jackson Pollock. His parents were Stella May McClure and LeRoy Pollock, his father, who born McCoy, had taken the surname of his parents' neighbours who adopted him after both his own parents died within a year of each...
(1902 - 1988) - Jackson PollockJackson PollockPaul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
(1912 - 1956) - Horatio Nelson PooleHoratio Nelson PooleHoratio Nelson Poole was an American painter, printmaker, muralist and teacher. He was born in Haddonfield, New Jersey on January 16, 1884, but his family moved to Philadelphia when Horatio was ten years old...
(1884 - 1949) - Ad ReinhardtAd ReinhardtAdolph Frederick Reinhardt was an Abstract painter active in New York beginning in the 1930s and continuing through the 1960s. He was a member of the American Abstract Artists and was a part of the movement centered around the Betty Parsons Gallery that became known as Abstract Expressionism...
(1913 - 1967) - Philip Reisman
- Daniel RhodesDaniel RhodesDaniel Rhodes was an American ceramic artist, sculptor, author and educator. During the twenty-five years that he was on the faculty at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, in Alfred, New York , he built an international reputation as a potter, sculptor and authority on...
- Diego RiveraDiego RiveraDiego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
- Mark RothkoMark RothkoMark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz , was a Russian-born American painter. He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted classification as an "abstract painter".- Childhood :Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Vitebsk Province, Russian...
- William B. RoweWilliam B. RoweWilliam Bentley Rowe was an American artist and art educator who worked primarily in New York and New Mexico. He was a versatile artist who used a wide range of mediums with great success. He also executed several large murals. Rowe was a leading member of the Art Institute of Buffalo. Other...
(1910-1955) - Augusta SavageAugusta SavageAugusta Savage, born Augusta Christine Fells was an African-American sculptor associated with the Harlem Renaissance. She was also a teacher and her studio was important to the careers of a rising generation of artists who would become nationally known...
(1892-1962) - Louis SchankerLouis SchankerLouis Schanker was an American abstract artist born in 1903. He grew up in an orthodox Jewish environment in the Bronx, New York. His parents were of Romanian descent...
(1903 - 1981) - Edwin ScheierEdwin ScheierEdwin Scheier , was an American artist, best known for his ceramic works with his wife, Mary Scheier.- Early life :...
- Georgette SeabrookeGeorgette SeabrookeGeorgette Seabrooke , is an American muralist, artist, illustrator, art therapist and educator.-Biography:...
- Ben ShahnBen ShahnBen Shahn was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content.-Biography:...
(1898 - 1969) - Gertrude Shibley
- Harry ShoulbergHarry ShoulbergHarry Shoulberg was an American expressionist painter.He was known to be among the early group of WPA artists working in the screen print medium, as well as oil.-Biography:...
(1903 - 1995) - Mitchell SiporinMitchell Siporin-Biography:Mitchell Siporin was born in New York City and grew up in Chicago. Through the Works Progress Administration, he worked as a painter. Together with Edward Milman, he painted the frescoes in the Central Post Office in St Louis. From 1946 to 1949, he served in the army in North Africa and...
(1910–1976) - David Siqueiros
- John French SloanJohn French SloanJohn French Sloan was an American artist. As a member of The Eight, he became a leading figure in the Ashcan School of realist artists. He was known for his urban genre painting and ability to capture the essence of neighborhood life in New York City, often through his window...
- William SommerWilliam SommerWilliam Sommer was an American Modernist painter.William Sommer was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1867. He was largely self-taught, but received instruction early on from artist and commercial lithographer Julius Melchers...
- Isaac SoyerIsaac SoyerIsaac Soyer was a social realist painter and often portrayed working-class people of New York City in his paintings.-Biography:...
- Moses SoyerMoses Soyer-Biography:Soyer was born in Borisoglebsk, Russia in 1899. His father was a Hebrew scholar, writer and teacher. His family emigrated to the USA in 1912. Soyer's brothers, Raphael and Isaac were also painters...
- Raphael SoyerRaphael SoyerRaphael Soyer was a Russian-born American painter, draftsman, and printmaker. Soyer was referred to as an American scene painter...
(1899 - 1987) - Ralph Ward Stackpole (1885 - 1973)
- Alexander Raoul Stavenitz
- Alton TobeyAlton TobeyAlton Stanley Tobey , the American artist, was a painter, historical artist, muralist, portraitist, illustrator, and teacher of art.-Biography:...
- Mark TobeyMark TobeyMark George Tobey was an American abstract expressionist painter, born in Centerville, Wisconsin. Widely recognized throughout the United States and Europe, Tobey is the most noted among the "mystical painters of the Northwest." Senior in age and experience, Tobey had a strong influence on the...
(1890 - 1976) - Stuyvesant Van Veen (1910 - 1988)
- T. F. Gustave Von Groschwitz
- John Augustus WalkerJohn Augustus WalkerJohn Augustus Walker was a well-known Alabama Gulf Coast artist of the Depression era who was commissioned to undertake several art projects for the Works Progress Administration.-Early life:...
- Jessie Wilber
- Grant WoodGrant WoodGrant DeVolson Wood was an American painter, born four miles east of Anamosa, Iowa. He is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest, particularly the painting American Gothic, an iconic image of the 20th century.- Life and career :His family moved to Cedar Rapids after his...
(1891 - 1942) - Julius Wyhoff
- Edgar YaegerEdgar YaegerEdgar Louis Yaeger was an American modernist painter from Detroit, Michigan.Yaeger studied under Robert A. Herzberg at the Detroit School of Fine and Applied Arts, by which he was awarded the Founder's Society Purchase Prize...
- William ZorachWilliam ZorachWilliam Zorach was a Lithuanian-born American sculptor, painter, printmaker, and writer. He won the Logan Medal of the arts.-Life and career:...
(1887 - 1966)