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Karl R. Free
Karl Rudolph Free (May 16, 1903 – February 16, 1947) was an American artist and museum curator, best known for his New Deal artwork, New Deal-era United States post office murals, post office murals. Many of his surviving works on paper are circus scenes in watercolor. Early in his career he was recognized for his etchings and prints, often on religious themes. His art is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney, and MoMA in New York City; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the Figge Art Museum in his hometown of Davenport, Iowa. Early years Free was born in Scott County, Iowa, in 1903, the second of the five children of mail carrier Henry Rudolph Free and his wife Anna (Eckhardt). He completed four years of high school, graduating from Central High School (Davenport, Iowa), Davenport High in 1921. In 1923, Free won a scholarship to study at the Art Students League of New York. His teachers included Allen Tucker, Joseph Pennell, Boardman Robins ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Deal Artwork
New Deal artwork is an umbrella term used to describe the creative output organized and funded by the Roosevelt administration’s New Deal response to the Great Depression. This work produced between 1933 and 1942 ranges in content and form from Dorothea Lange’s photographs for the Farm Security Administration to the Coit Tower murals to the library-etiquette posters from the Federal Art Project to the architecture of the Solomon Courthouse in Nashville, Tennessee. The New Deal sought to “democratize the arts” and is credited with creating a “great body of distinguished work and fostering a national aesthetic.” Background While work of this era is sometimes called “WPA art” the architecture and the creative arts groups of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal One (Federal Art Project, Federal Writers Project, et al.) were only some of the New Deal agencies commissioning creative works. (Federal One’s budget at its height in 1935 was $27 million, repre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
