The Dill Pickle Club is organizing a honking huge art show, bookshop and event series at the Eyeful Gallery that opens Thursday, December 3rd at the First Thursday artwalk. Go here for all the details.
I’m making four short videos to promote the event, one to be released each week of the month long show. Here’s the first installment.
WORK | PROGRESS also celebrates two publications I produced for the Dill Pickle Club — Brains, Brilliancy, Bohemia: Art and Politics in Jazz-Age Chicago and Art for the Millions: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA. Head to the store for more info and to pick up a copy.
In my research for the Art for the Millions bike ride, I came across an amazing little-remembered publication, Art Front (1934-1937). This magazine provided a fantastic resource and community sounding board for issues surrounding art and politics during the Works Progress Administration (WPA) period. Based in New York City, the magazine was the official organ of the Artists’ Union and served as a main organizing tool. Contributors included Fernand Leger, Harold Rosenberg, Louis Bunin, and Stuart Davis, among numerous others.
Art Front’s mission was “as wide as art itself.” Stated its editor, H.S. Baron, “Many art magazines are being published in America today. Without one exception, however, these periodicals support outworn economic concepts as a basis for the support of art which victimize and destroy art. The urgent need for a publication which speaks for the artist, battles for his economic security and guides him in his artistic efforts is self-evident.”
