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| "Radio Broadcast" by Julia Eckel 1934 oil on canvas 40 x 55 |
Have you ever visited a museum and become transfixed by a piece of art? I visited the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art's new exhibit The New Deal. This piece is captivating. It is very large at 40 x 55 but it is still so intimate because of the composition. I was struck by the amazing colors and brush strokes which are unfortunately lost by photographing the piece. The way the paint was so lusciously applied made me want to go out and buy oil paints and start painting! I wish I could give you the experience of seeing this in person there is really no substitute.
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| "Revival" by Julia Eckel 40 x 56 oil on canvas |
I couldn't find very much biographical information about the artist Julia Eckel. She was born in Washington D.C. 1907 and died in D.C. in 1988. Her father was a WWI Major, Edwin C Eckel. He was a geologist with the US Geological Survey. From what I could find she never married.
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| "Street Scene" 40 x 55 by Julia Eckel oil on canvas |
Julia produced her pieces for Public Works Art Program which was a component of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal economic recovery program which lasted for a 6 month period during 1933-1934. The purpose of this program was to alleviate the distress of professional, unemployed American artists by paying them to produce artwork that could be used to embellish public buildings. The program was administered by the Treasury Department by art professionals in 16 different regions.
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| "Band Concert" by Julia Eckel 40 x 56 oil on canvas |
During this brief period 4,000 artists from around the nation were commissioned to produce some 15,000 paintings reflecting the every day life in America.
The Montgomery Museum of Fine Art has a portion of these paintings on exhibit on loan from the Smithsonian American Art's Museum. It's on exhibit now through the beginning of Jan. For a look at a few more of the New Deal pieces on exhibit click
here.
I hope you enjoyed this post. I'm planning on doing a post each Friday, called
Friday Feature, where I spotlight art that strikes me and do artists interviews.
Have a great weekend,
Carrie
**the sources of information for this post were
The Montgomery Museum of Fine Art
Images used were from the Smithsonian's American Art Museum
