The Great Depression was the cause of massive changes in the economy, societal order, and life quality and, despite the hardships of this period, it was also a time of the art shift.
Art has always been the medium through which we expressed our emotions and thoughts. It was a way to depict the world around us. As early as 73,000 years ago, homo sapiens created the first-ever known drawings in human history; they depicted animals that were part of their lives, hunting scenes, and everyday rituals. Their only intrinsic motivation was to share and express ideas. This motivation is persistent throughout human history, varying in the degree and types of ideas expressed. We strive to feel better through the creation of art, which lets us ease our minds stimulated by the constant progression of life. No wonder people start expressing themselves in various art mediums today. At our time of anxiousness and uncertainty, we search for something solid. Young and old learn how to use oil paint, play guitar, write poems, and even clay sculpting.
It has always been fascinating for me to see how human society progresses through a history of its existence. Most of the time human nature is very strong and doesn't alternate. It’s not a bad thing, though, since beautiful things, such as appreciation and love for art, didn’t change. I decided to look into how, however, the art changes; how we as humans open our minds to new things. By learning history, I inadvertently learn about myself.
With the widespread use of art, we can already observe changes in it. Musicians create songs about quarantine and lock-down orders, thus allowing all of us to have some comedic relief, such as Marc Mayer posting funny songs and tributes relating to the pandemic on his Facebook page. Artists focus their attention on doctors and nurses, creating sketches, comics, and drawings depicting the hard fight our medical workers are in. For example, the New York Times keeps releasing covers featuring medical personnel; Iranian artist Alireza Pakdel creates cartoons emphasizing hardships and sacrifices doctors go through during the pandemic, reminding us of their humanity. Art shifted its focus from ephemeral to “regular people” and its heroes became front-line workers not noticed before. I believe that by focusing on these “regular people”, we can finally see how our life is impossible without them. We have yet to know how the pandemic will influence the art on more profound levels but we can learn from history.
Going back in history, I decided to focus on the event to which our current global and economical situations are lately compared so often to - The Great Depression. The Great Depression changed the ideas that art expressed in the U.S. For the first time in American history, artists started sharing their political opinions through their pieces. Their works were meant to influence society’s opinion and show how regular citizens were affected by the financial collapse. Heart-wrenching photos taken by Dorothea Lange are the staple images of the Great Depression. A photo of a woman surrounded by her two kids is the most recognized image; her eyes are full of fear for tomorrow and body language expresses the worry of uncertainty. It’s the first photo you think about when you hear about the hardships of the Great Depression. During that time, the artists became more outspoken and sided against the elite, who experienced minimal discomfort at the times of massive poverty and hunger. Artists organized exhibitions discussing and protesting poverty, housing insecurity, lynching, and fascism. They were unionizing and organizing conferences. Artists became one of the influential political forces. It’s important to note, however, that they were able to work at a living wage and had complete freedom of what they created through the New Deal Program. This lack of financial instability could have influenced artists' involvement in politics and the ability to produce a great deal of work.
At our times, artists are not supported by the government and experience the same financial
uncertainty as other Americans during the pandemic. But there’s still a drive and motivation to create art. Artists help us cope with our grief and, frankly, tiredness from social distancing. For me, music is a way to soothe my mind. I wander around my place with calm songs playing in my headphones, imagining myself to be in a music video. It’s nice to act silly and think about small things rather than focus all of my attention on global problems. I am just a human and the weight of the entire world can be too much for me, so I rather care about seemingly small things such as the progress on the artwork of an artist I follow or analysis of lyrics of a song I just got into.
It would be wonderful and fascinating to see later on in history how this global event affected the way people expressed themselves through art. One thing is certain for sure, art is a fresh breath of air during the time when the entire population of earth feels suffocated.
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