RKS Museums: The Met Presents “Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930’s” (Until 10December2023): Ben Shahn’s “Welders”

The 1930s was a decade of political and social upheaval in the United States, and the art and visual culture of the time reflected the unsettled environment. Americans searched for their cultural identity during the Great Depression, a period marked by divisive politics, threats to democracy, and intensified social activism, including a powerful labor movement. Featuring more than 100 works from The Met collection and several lenders, this exhibition explores how artists expressed political messages and ideologies through a range of media, from paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs to film, dance, decorative arts, fashion, and ephemera.

Highlights include paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, and Stuart Davis; prints by Elizabeth Olds, Dox Thrash, and Riva Helfond; photographs by Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange; footage of Martha Graham’s dance Frontier; and more, providing an unprecedented overview of the era’s sociopolitical landscape.

Ben Shahn’s (1898-1969) “Welders” (1943) was painted in 1943 when the United States government focused on defense efforts during World War II, it gradually disbanded Works Projects Administration (WPA) projects officially closing the WPA in 1943. Many former WPA artists went to find employment through other public ventures. Shahn worked for the graphics division of the CIO-PAC the United States’ first political action committee, which had been set up to sidestep new restrictions on the financial contributions unions could make to political campaigns. “Welders” which invokes racial solidarity in the work force, was reproduced as a poster that read, “for full employment after the war, register to vote.”

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, purchase 1944.