The creation of art and the inspiration behind art pieces has changed significantly over time- as it obviously should. Life, society, politics, and so on are constantly transforming through each generation. However, a way to link new art to old art is the creative digital art form of glitching. Michael J. Kramer delves into the power of glitching images taken during the American Folk Music revival, and the glitched images themselves create a whole other meaning that previously wouldn’t have been seen had they not been glitched 1 . The photograph I chose to analyze and glitch was one titled “Augusta Savage posing with her sculpture Realization”, created as part of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project, pictured here. I chose to analyze this photograph because I felt that it represented African American woman and African American people’s involvement in the New Deal era very well. It revealed that African American’s were an integral part of the Federal Art Program, and shows how important art was during the Harlem Renaissance, and the Great Depression era in general. The fact that an African American woman was documented posing next to her art that was funded by the government, speaks volumes about the change occurring in America at the time, and the obvious need of art and its power to bring others together. While we haven’t delved extensively into the Harlem Renaissance, we have touched on other African American artists, such as Leadbelly, as well as other american artists who demonstrated the power of music and the arts in a time where america was feeling less enthusiastic. Morris Dickstein, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, wrote in an article specifically about how song, dance, and art brought people out of the depression. 2
He makes a point to emphasize that the arts of the time were not a form of escapism, but rather a “speed, energy and movement at a time of economic stagnation and social malaise”. The photograph and documentation of Augusta Savage with her sculpture proves there was a speed and energy at that time. African American’s were just as much as a part of this artistic movement as were white people, and they were being more recognized for it.
With these theme of change and the power of art in my head, I found myself thinking about how art effects America now, and how art from the New Deal/ Great Depression era, still impacts the people of today. How did the artists of that era feel when creating their art? Did they know it would be so impactful or did they just think of it as a federally funded project for the Federal Art Project. And lastly, would something like the Federal Art Project work today? In analyzing the Augusta Savage photograph, and other documentations of artists at the time, I felt as though America was just in a different head space at the time. Documentation of artists with their work isn’t necessarily created today in the way it was back then. People wanted to boost morale, they wanted to change. America currently seems more divided than ever so the idea of art being used in such an obvious way by the government, and being documented by the government, doesn’t seem like something that would work. However, I do feel that interacting with the art of the past, as we did when creating our exhibits and the glitched image, does allow for people to get a deeper understanding of the art of the Great Depression/ New Deal era, and demonstrates that art is an extremely powerful thing that should be considered important and valid.
