artists of the wpa & their styles by: timothy vermette
TRANSCRIPT
Artists of the WPA & Their Styles
By: Timothy Vermette
Parallelism to the Murals in Coburn 205
Arshile Gorky • Born Vostanig Manoog Adoyan near Turkey around 1904 (actual date is
debated)• Important artist in shaping the abstract expressionism movement • Survivor of the Armenian Genocide• Self-taught artist before enrolling in New School of Design in Boston• Moved to New York and enrolled at the National Academy of Design and
Grand Central School of Art• Died in 1948
Gorky’s Art Style
• Used his personal trauma of the Armenian Genocide to create beautiful pieces of art
• Combined elements of surrealism with expressionism
The Artist and His Mother, 1926-1936
The Liver is the Cock’s Comb, 1944
Jackson Pollock
• Born in Wyoming in 1912• Attended Manual Arts High School in LA• Studied under Thomas Hart Benson in NY• Driven by alcoholism• Died in 1956
Pollock’s Art Style• Primarily focused on nature, focusing on previous areas of his life before
turning to Surrealism and Cubism later on• Was mostly known for abstracts, as well as art sparked by his therapy
sessions
Going West, 1935Mural, 1943
Sources• www.theartstory.org• www.wikipedia.org• www.wikiart.org• www.museum.state.il.us• www.discussions.mnhs.org• www.flickr.com• www.nytimes.com• www.biography.com• www.wpamurals.com