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| Artists' Union (United States) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Artists' Union (United States) |
| Founded | 1933 |
| Dissolved | 1942 |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Key people | William Gropper; Hugo Gellert; Stuart Davis; Martha Graham; Ben Shahn |
| Membership | Artists, illustrators, muralists, printmakers, sculptors |
| Affiliation | American Federation of Labor (informal ties) |
Artists' Union (United States) The Artists' Union (United States) was a coalition of visual artists, printmakers, muralists, and illustrators active primarily in New York City during the 1930s and early 1940s. Emerging amid the Great Depression and intersecting with labor activism, the Union linked figures from the WPA Federal Art Project, aligned with leftist collectives and unions such as the American Federation of Labor, and engaged with institutions like the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, and municipal art programs.
The Union formed in 1933 following strikes and sit-ins influenced by events like the Bonus Army march, the 1934 San Francisco General Strike, and activism around the Communist Party USA and Socialist Party of America. It grew alongside the Works Progress Administration and the Federal Art Project, intersecting with organizations such as the General Strike Committee, the National Recovery Administration, and the New Deal cultural apparatus under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Key protests referenced models from the Sacco and Vanzetti demonstrations, the Scottsboro case campaigns, and picket tactics used by the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The Union’s trajectory reflected debates ongoing in the National Labor Relations Board era and clashes with municipal administrations in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco over relief commissions and public commissions.
Membership included painters associated with the Ashcan School, Social Realism, Regionalism, and members of the Artists' Congress; printmakers linked to the WPA Graphic Arts Division; and muralists with commissions from the Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture. Organizationally, the Union adopted structures similar to the American Federation of Labor locals, with elected secretaries and committees echoing the organizational practices of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and the United Auto Workers. Meetings convened in spaces connected to the New School, the Art Students League of New York, the Cooper Union, and community centers where activists from the Young Communist League and the League of American Artists also organized.
The Union staged demonstrations at sites including the New York City Municipal Building, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Federal Building, coordinated mass pickets akin to those by the Teamsters and the United Mine Workers, and organized benefit exhibitions referencing initiatives by the Surrealists, Dadaists, and Abstract Expressionists. Campaigns pressed for guaranteed commissions, fair wages paralleling demands made by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and the United Federation of Teachers, and public murals like those coordinated with the Public Works of Art Project and the Treasury Relief Art Project. The Union collaborated with civil rights campaigns influenced by leaders such as A. Philip Randolph and organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The Union was instrumental in advocating for artists’ employment within New Deal programs including the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project, the Public Works of Art Project, and the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. It lobbied officials in the Roosevelt administration, coordinated with cultural figures connected to the Library of Congress, and negotiated with arts administrators overseeing projects in municipal programs in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. The Union influenced hiring practices, studio allocations, and the selection of artists for murals in post offices, public schools, and municipal buildings, interacting with personalities from the Carnegie Corporation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
The Union confronted labor disputes involving employment, copyright, and artists’ rights, engaging legal counsel in cases that paralleled disputes brought before the National Labor Relations Board and municipal courts. Conflicts involved municipal art commissions, welfare relief policies, and disputes with museum administrations such as the Whitney and MoMA over exhibition access and curatorial practices. The Union’s tactics drew scrutiny from anti-communist elements, intersecting with investigations reminiscent of those later conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee and prompting legal debates similar to cases heard by the Supreme Court on freedom of expression and association.
Prominent figures associated with the Union included muralists and illustrators such as Diego Rivera collaborators, Social Realist painters like Ben Shahn, printmakers including Harry Sternberg, and leaders like William Gropper and Hugo Gellert. Other associated artists and cultural figures encompassed Stuart Davis, Stuart Davis contemporaries linked to the Armory Show legacy, photographers with ties to the Farm Security Administration, choreographers and cultural allies including Martha Graham, and critics connected to publications such as The New Masses and The Nation. The Union’s leadership network interacted with union leaders like John L. Lewis and labor intellectuals from the Russell Sage Foundation and the New Deal arts bureaucracy.
The Union’s campaigns informed later artists’ organizations such as the Artists Equity Association, the Contemporary Artists Union, and grassroots advocacy groups organizing around arts funding in municipal and federal budgets. Its influence is evident in labor-oriented art collectives, public art policies in cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and contemporary debates involving the National Endowment for the Arts, artists’ copyright struggles, and unionization efforts within cultural institutions including museums, universities, and galleries. The Union left a documented lineage traceable through archives held by institutions like the Smithsonian, the Archives of American Art, and university special collections, and shaped practices in cultural policy, artist labor rights, and public commissions that continue to resonate in contemporary arts advocacy.
Category:Arts organizations based in New York City Category:Labor history of the United States