August Henkel (1880–1961) was an American artist.
He was a Socialist candidate for 4th District of the
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits.
The Assem ...
from
Queens County in 1919, and Communist candidate for the
1st District of the House of Representatives from New York in 1934.
He was a member of the
Federal Art Project
The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...
, and worked on a mural at
Floyd Bennett Field
Floyd Bennett Field is an airfield in the Marine Park neighborhood of southeast Brooklyn in New York City, along the shore of Jamaica Bay. The airport originally hosted commercial and general aviation traffic before being used as a naval air ...
with
Eugene Chodorow. There was a controversy about
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
appearing in the mural. In 1940, he refused to sign a
loyalty oath
A loyalty oath is a pledge of allegiance to an organization, institution, or state of which an individual is a member. In the United States, such an oath has often indicated that the affiant has not been a member of a particular organization or ...
, resulting in the destruction of the mural.
Irondale.org .pdf
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References
External links
August Henkel in 1939Comment on controversy in the ''New Yorker''
July 20, 1940
August Henkel
at Ask Art
1880 births
1961 deaths
Federal Art Project artists
Communist Party USA politicians
Artists from New York City
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