The WPA & the Golden Age · Reading & the Stage
Exhibition — oils & watercolors, Federal Art Gallery
Work Projects Administration; Federal Art Gallery, 225 W. 57 St., New York City, 1936
What it is
A silkscreen exhibition poster from 1936 for a show of oils and watercolors at the Federal Art Gallery, 225 W. 57 St., New York. The Library of Congress records no designer.
Why it matters
It was made by the Work Projects Administration's poster program, the New Deal effort that put unemployed artists to work printing public announcements — here advertising a government-run gallery's own exhibition. Signage like this circulated art to a Depression-era street audience, which is why it names the gallery and its address rather than any single hand.
What to notice
Look at how horizontal it runs — unusual for the series — and how the flat silkscreen color leaves the palette and brushes alone on the sheet, with nothing else competing for the eye.
Government-issue art, telling the street where to find more of it.
Provenance
- School
- WPA — Federal Art Project (United States)
- Format
- Exhibition poster
- Poster published
- Work Projects Administration; Federal Art Gallery, 225 W. 57 St., New York City, 1936
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division · LCCN 98513596
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. government program work (WPA Federal Art Project), any year. Gated by the poster’s own publication year. Cleared by registry on 2026-07-18.
Format
The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.
Sized to protect print quality — this scan supports sizes up to 18x24" cleanly.
Size
$29.00
