The Great Depression
Beginning on New York’s Wall Street on October 29, 1929, which would come to be known as ‘Black Tuesday’, the Great Depression was the most…
Search Results 1 - 25 of 54
Workers Dance League, The
In the midst of the economic and social upheaval of America’s Great Depression, a group of young modern dancers came together in 1932 to form…
The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a flourishing of artistic, intellectual, musical, and literary accomplishments by African Americans between the World Wars. The movement took its name…
Dance Marathons
In a modernizing society undergoing rapidly increasing mechanization, industrialization, urbanization, commercialism, and consumerism, the dance marathons of the 1920s and 1930s reflected social developments of…
Baird, Irene (1901–1981)
Canadian novelist and civil servant Irene Baird is best known for her second novel, Waste Heritage (1939), which was based on firsthand research into the…
Ward, Lynd (1905–1985)
Lynd Kendall Ward was an American artist best known for the six novels in woodcuts he created between 1929–37, though he was also an accomplished…
Dos Passos, John (1896–1970)
John Dos Passos was an American writer best known for his ‘contemporary chronicles’ of American life. His early novels, including Manhattan Transfer (1925) and the…
Federal Theatre Project (1935–9)
The Federal Theatre Project was a government-subsidized program established in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide jobs for theater artists during the Great…
Marriott, Anne (1913–1997)
Joyce Anne Marriott was a Canadian modernist poet. Born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, Marriott published seven collections of poetry and hundreds of poems…
Shahn, Ben (1898–1969)
Ben Shahn was an American painter, photographer, muralist, and graphic artist. His realist style, left-wing political activism, and socially conscious artwork exemplify social realism. After…
Precisionism
Precisionism was a modernist art movement during the 1920s and 1930s in the United States, in which painters produced a ‘‘machine aesthetic’’ by rendering precise,…
Coughlin, Charles E. (October 25, 1891–October 27, 1979)
Father Charles Coughlin was an influential American Catholic priest who became famous for his controversial but extremely popular radio program, which aired from October 1926…
Lange, Dorothea (1895–1965)
Dorothea Lange is best known as a documentary photographer for the United States Department of Agriculture’s Resettlement Administration (later the Farm Security Administration) during the…
Dafora, Asadata (1890--1965)
Multidisciplinary artist Asadata Dafora (also known as Austin Asadata Dafora Horton) was widely known for his contributions to dance as well as for the propagation…
Regionalists, The
The visual artists known as the Regionalists rose to prominence in the United States during the 1930s. They advocated the use of realistic styles to…
Garner, Hugh (1913–1979)
Hugh Garner was a British-Canadian writer, journalist, and editor. His fictional writings reflect on the experiences of marginalized individuals, echoing his own early experiences of…
Federal Art Project
The Federal Art Project (FAP) was a branch of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a work relief agency established in 1935 by President Franklin Delano…
Hurston, Zora Neale (1891–1960)
Zora Neale Hurston was a writer and anthropologist. Since the Black Arts and Feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s, she has been commonly acclaimed…
Abstract Expressionism
Abstract Expressionism was a movement initiated by a group of loosely affiliated artists that came together during the early 1940s, primarily in New York City.…
Modernism in Canada and The United States
In Canada and the United States modernism emerges from transnational engagements with global intellectual movements while also grappling with local intellectual, cultural, and political developments…
Modernism in Europe
We are living in a very singular moment of history. It is a moment of crisis, in the literal sense of that word. In every…
Photography
Keynes, John Maynard (1883–1946)
John Maynard Keynes, CB, FBA, first baron Keynes of Tilton, was an economist, moral philosopher, and patron of the arts. The tension between ethical and…
Populism
The most salient first use of the term populism and its cognates can be found in late 19th-century Tsarist Russia. The Russian peasant Narodniki [populists]…
First American Artists’ Congress (14–16 February 1936)
The First American Artists’ Congress convened over three days in New York City, and marked the formal establishment of the American Artists’ Congress (1936–1942). The…