Eighty years ago thismonth, the U.S. government established Federal Project Number One, thecollectiv

Eighty years ago thismonth, the U.S. government established Federal Project Number One, thecollective name for several programs that supported the employment of artists,writers, musicians, and actors during the Great Depression. As part of thisrelief program, four abstract artists were commissioned in 1936 to create murals for the Williamsburg Houses, one of the earliest public housingprojects in New York City. Each week during the month of August, we willhighlight one of these artists and his mural(s).The abstract artist Paul Kelpe emigrated from Germany to the U.S. in 1925,settling for a time in Chicago. Employed by the Public Works of Art Project,the predecessor of Federal Project Number One, in 1934, he quickly becamefrustrated with the emphasis on representational works focused on American lifeand history. He attempted to accommodate his abstract style to the demand for suchpaintings by creating works around the theme of industrial progress.However, uponlearning of the Federal Art Project Mural Division in New York City, headed by fellowabstract artist Burgoyne Diller, Kelpe left Chicago and was quickly hired towork on the Williamsburg murals. His two canvases were the only ones not painted over by the 1980s, as thecommunity rooms they were installed in fell into disuse or were repurposed.Like IlyaBolotowsky and the other artists for the WilliamsburgHouses, Kelpe was a founding member of American Abstract Artists. Within thegroup though, he was an anomaly, as his style maintained an illusionistic,three-dimensional space. This is evident in his Williamsburg murals, where thecentral, abstract geometric shapes seem to float and push forward in space.Posted by Connie H. Choi -- source link

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