Carter, W.; (2008) Figuring the New Deal: Policy and ideology in Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture in Washington, D.C., 1934-1943. Doctoral thesis , University of London.

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Abstract

This thesis uses neo-Marxist theories of the state and their application to New Deal historiography as the framework within which to analyse the artworks produced under the auspices of the Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture from 1934 to 1943 in Washington, D.C. Taking as its focus the murals and sculptures produced for the Justice Department, the Interior Department, and the Social Security Administration buildings it seeks to demonstrate how Section art reflected the twists and turns of the Roosevelt administration as it moved through the First New Deal, the Second New Deal, and the constitutional crisis in the lead up to war in Europe. Whilst these artworks are often read as propaganda pure and simple the thesis will explore the extent to which the art produced under federal patronage had a far more nuanced and complex relationship to New Deal social policy. It will demonstrate that this was particularly the case with those murals and sculptures produced by radical artists, politicised by the Depression and organised via the various cultural fronts of the Communist Party of the United States, who attempted to use their commissions to encode a politics and ideology to the left of a New Deal reform agenda, particularly as this was becoming increasingly stymied in the led up to war.

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