New Deal Art: "Cement Mixer"

Above: "Cement Mixer," a color lithograph by Jacob Kainen (1909-2001), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1937. Kainen developed left-wing views during the Great Depression, and when asked about it, he said: "Well, in the Depression, in 1929, I used to see entire blocks evicted, people with their bedding out in the street... no place to go, their mattresses out there. So I took part in the unemployed councils. We used to take the furniture back upstairs and the police gave only half-hearted resistance. So I think that got me started. The government seemed to do nothing about [the economic problems of the working class]." Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the University of Iowa Museum of Art.