Type

Text

Type

Thesis

Advisor

Lee, Sohl | Siegel, Katy

Date

2017-12-01

Keywords

Art—History

Department

Department of Art History and Criticism

Language

en_US

Source

This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.

Identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/11401/78292

Publisher

The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.

Format

application/pdf

Abstract

This thesis takes as its central object of analysis The Birth of a New World – A Cooperative Tribute, an illustration spread featured in the November 1926 issue of New Masses, a notable leftist magazine in the United States during the interwar period of the 1920’s and 1930’s. As a collaborative piece by the artists Hugo Gellert, William Gropper, I. Klein, Louis Lozowick and William Siegel, this illustration demonstrates how a model for artistic collaboration and a collective vision for an alternative society emerged during this period by drawing inspirations from political and artistic revolutions elsewhere. One such source was Soviet Russia, whose recent success in the 1917 Revolution had much impact on the American artists and intellectuals and whose chronology was the main subject matter of The Birth of a New World. The authors of this illustration elevated the importance of the working class in this new world to come, and New Masses editors called for a specific aesthetic style that confronted social and political concerns while addressing the directed proletarian audience. Turning to the communal Soviet Russia as a revolutionary model built on the collective contributions of the working class, these artists participated in shaping an artistic vision for the American left of the interwar period, and their contribution continued as they soon afterwards took part in the formation of leftist artists groups such as the John Reed Club and the American Artists School, where the political significance of the collaborative illustration was applied to other media such as large-scale public murals during the Great Depression era. | 41 pages

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