First Auction of Artists of the WPA at Swann Establishes Four Records

The Artists of the WPA were on display in our February 4, 2021, auction. The multi-departmental sale was headed by Harold Porcher, the house’s director of Modern and Post-War Art, and featured paintings, prints, photographs, posters and related ephemera by artists whose careers were sustained by the Works Progress Administration and other agencies of the New Deal.

Photographs

The sale was led by a selection of 38 vintage silver prints spanning 1932 to 42 by John Vachon, a record for the grouping, at $37,500. Vachon began his work for the Farm Security Administration as an assistant messenger. As his interest in photography grew, he began to make his own photographs and accompanied Arthur Rothstein on one of his assignments; in 1938 Vachon would have his first solo assignment for the FSA in Nebraska.

Related Reading: Beyond Migrant Mother: Five FSA Photographers to Know

Additional photography highlights include Dorothea Lange, with Hoe Culture, Alabama Tenant Farmer near Anniston, silver print, 1936 ($8,125), and Migrant Mother, silver print, 1936, printed circa 1970 ($7,000); Berenice Abbott with Manhattan Bridge (Looking Up), silver contact print, 1936 ($7,000); and Peter Sekaer with Old Fashioned Kitchen on Virginia Farm, silver print, 1936, which was acquired by an institution ($5,250).

Related Reading: The Artists of the WPA: The Promise of a New Deal

Prints

Norman Lewis, who worked sporadically with several entities of the WPA, had a highlight among the prints on offer, with the 1943 lithograph Comrades selling for $9,375. Further lithographs that captured collector attention included Benton Spruance’s The 30’s-Windshield, 1939, which brought a record for the print at $6,750; Howard Cook’s Lower Manhattan, 1939, at $8,750; and Grant Wood’s Tree Planting Group, 1937, at $8,750. Joseph Binder’s 1939 poster for the New York’s World Fair brought $5,250—the highest price for the work this century.

Related Reading: Etched in History: Printmakers of the Federal Art Project and WPA Posters: Favorites from a Vintage Posters Specialist

Paintings

Paintings were popular among collectors with records being established for Arthur Getz with a 1938 casein and tempera study selling for $10,625, and Abram Tromka with Third Avenue El, oil on canvas, 1941, at $7,000. Reginald Marsh was present with The Waterfront, New York, oil on canvas, 1943, which brought $13,750; as well as Leon Bibel with The Flood, oil on canvas, circa 1939, which realized $5,000.

Related Reading: Harold Porcher Explores Mexican Muralists & Their Impact on the WPA

“How people react in times of hardship are telling of
who that person is at their core. When our nation faced the stock market crash, banks locking their doors, and unemployment numbers skyrocketing, many were ready to give in to fear and finger pointing. Franklin Roosevelt was sworn into office in 1932 and managed to calm the fears, and usher in plans to bring our country together and move us forward. The WPA projects, and the New Deal at large, is not just our nation’s history but a road map to show us that we can work together and overcome hardships as a nation. We are strongest in unity. Few of the artists of the WPA generation are still with us. Let us not forget them and their neighbors, and how they helped to usher us into the prosperous post-war era.”

_{Harold Porcher, Director of Modern & Post-War Art}

Consign with Swann.