Above: "Starving Woman," an artwork by Marjorie Eakins (1910-1974), probably created while she was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1939. According to AskArt, Eakins was born in San Francisco, went to San Francisco State College and the California School of Fine Arts (today called the San Francisco Art Institute), studied under the muralist Diego Rivera, and "During the 1930s she produced lithographs for the WPA." There's little or no information on this artwork on the Internet, so it's hard to know exactly what the artist intended. For example, what is the woman starving for? Love? Hope? Well, judging by her gaunt face, the artist probably meant "starving" in the literal sense: not enough food, malnutrition. Today, as the wealthiest Americans keeping eating up more and more of the nation's wealth, and gleefully scavenging off the financial carcasses of the lower classes, and howling for more tax cuts, food insecurity is a persistent problem in the United States - and the food that is available (i.e., affordable) to lower income groups is often very high in sugar, salt, and fat - but low in vitamins and minerals (see, e.g., "Poverty, tight budgets foster food insecurity in West Las Vegas," Las Vegas Review-Journal, October 14, 2017. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Ackland Art Museum.
Above: A WPA poster promoting good nutrition. Through public information campaigns, recreation programs, surplus food distribution, garden projects, school lunches, expanded healthcare services, and more, the New Deal improved America's health and fitness. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
No comments:
Post a Comment