Old photos of Minnesota sugar beet harvest capture the Great Depression and the American dream
“Roots of the Red River Valley: Through the Lens of Russell Lee,” now on display in Moorhead, uses images of the late photographer to look at the 1937 sugar beet harvest in Polk County and highlight the importance of migrant workers in the process. Written By: John Lamb | ×
Migrant workers in the sugarbeet fields on a Polk County, Minn., farm. Photo by Russell Lee / Courtesy of the Library of Congress / Special to The Forum
MOORHEAD The newest show at the Historical & Cultural Society of Clay County digs deep into the region’s agricultural and ancestral histories.
First auction of artists of the WPA at Swann establishes four records
Arthur Getz, Untitled (WPA Practice Piece), casein and tempera, 1938. Sold for $10,625, a record for the artist.
NEW YORK, NY
.- The Artists of the WPA were on display in Swann Galleries Thursday, February 4 auction. The multi-departmental sale was headed by Harold Porcher, the houses 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.
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 f
“Roots of the Red River Valley: Through the Lens of Russell Lee,” now on display in Moorhead, uses images of the late photographer to look at the 1937 sugar beet harvest in Polk County and highlight the importance of migrant workers in the process.
My father, Richard Rampell, was a photographer who used to exhibit his artsy black and white pictures in Manhattan’s top photo galleries. Always a good provider, Dad supported our family by teaching at Boys High in Bed Stuy, explaining: “All artists require patrons.
Swann to offer curated sale focused on the artists of the WPA
Reginald Marsh, The Waterfront, New York, oil on canvas, 1943. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.
NEW YORK, NY
.- On Thursday, February 4 Swann Galleries will offer the auction: The Artists of the WPA. The multi-departmental sale will feature paintings, prints, photographs, posters, books and related ephemera by artists whose careers were sustained by the Works Progress Administration. In the aftermath of the Great Depression, president Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal and its related agencies represented an unprecedented investment in art and artists, setting the scene for the twentieth centurys art movements, and establishing the careers of diverse creatives, including women, Black artists, photographers, and muralists.