Tuesday, October 24, 2017

New Deal Hard Times Art (9/10): "Forgotten Man"

Above: "Forgotten Man," an oil painting by Gustav Berk, created while he was in a New Deal art program, probably either the Public Works of Art Project or the WPA's Federal Art Project, ca. 1934-1935. Not much is known about Berk, but according to the Nebraska State Historical Society, he was born in Germany and lived from about 1871-1937. He had a wife named Margaret and two children, so it's possible he has descendants living today - descendants who might not even be aware that he painted "Forgotten Man," an artwork based on one of Franklin Roosevelt's speeches. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Nebraska State Historical Society.

On April 7, 1932, in his Radio Address From Albany, New York: "The 'Forgotten Man' Speech", Franklin Roosevelt said: "In my calm judgment, the Nation faces today a more grave emergency than in 1917. It is said that Napoleon lost the battle of Waterloo because he forgot his infantry - he staked too much upon the more spectacular but less substantial cavalry. The present administration in Washington provides a close parallel. It has either forgotten or it does not want to remember the infantry of our economic army. These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power for plans like those of 1917 that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid."

Today, plutocracy has once again taken over the country. As everyday Americans face stagnant wages, crushing personal debt, rising rates of depression and anxiety, the political right is working hard to give massive tax cuts to the rich and also to cut the social safety net. We are forgotten again.

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