East 23rd Street (Madison Square) Post Office and its Murals....a little history, too

This Post Office on East 23rd Street was one of the ones built in the 1930's that also had murals installed as part of the Works Projects Administration. (Newer mural also shown here).

Now for a little history about the whole WPA-- a program many people feel we need again (desperately, in fact-- our infrastructure is crumbling, cf. the recent bridge collapse in Washington State. Estimates of how many repair projects are necessary for bridges alone in this country are staggering). 

Here is a little bit of information about the WPA Arts projects--specifically, the Federal Art Project (like the first mural shown...I would have taken more but the light was so crummy and I did not want to use my flash, figured I would get in trouble...that's the way it goes in NYC)-- 
 But I found this on an internet website called "Forgotten New York"--


The Madison Square Post Office at 149 East 23rd is a 1930s Art Deco classic, from the bronze steps and doors to its eight interior murals, completed from 1937-39 by Texas painter Kindred McLeary. The New York Times, in a 1994 article, is lukewarm about them:
The subjects are vigorously painted, if a little burdened with Social Realist cliches: doormen bow and scrape in “Park Avenue”; bohemians strut in “Greenwich Village,” and pin-striped deal-makers hog the sidewalk in “Wall Street.” Still, McLeary accomplished his goal of depicting New York’s cosmopolitan milieu, and his animated style gives a sense of the city’s frenetic tempo. Grace Glueck, “A Guide to the City’s Depression Murals.” NY Times, January 7, 1994

Anyway, to continue:

The Federal Art Project (FAP) was the visual arts arm of the Great Depression-era New Deal Works Progress Administration Federal One program in the United States. It operated from August 29, 1935, until June 30, 1943. Reputed to have created more than 200,000 separate works, FAP artists created posters, murals and paintings. Some works still stand among the most-significant pieces of public art in the country.^[2]
The program made no distinction between representational and nonrepresentational art. Abstraction had not yet gained favor in the 1930s and 1940s and, thus, was virtually unsalable. As a result, the program supported such iconic artists as Jackson Pollock before their work could earn them income.^[3]
The FAP's primary goals were to employ out-of-work artists and to provide art for non-federal government buildings: schools, hospitals, libraries, etc. The work was divided into art production, art instruction and art research. The primary output of the art-research group was the Index of American Design, a mammoth and comprehensive study of American material culture.
The FAP was one of a short-lived series of Depression-era visual-arts programs, which included the Section of Painting and Sculpture and the Public Works of Art Project (both of which, unlike the WPA-operated FAP, were operated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury).

Notable artists

"Wild Life: The National Parks Preserve All Life.", New York City Federal Art Project, WPA, 1940

Poster for a Federal Art Project forum in New York City c. 1936-1941, at which Holger Cahill was one of the speakers

Main article: List of Works Progress Administration artists

Some of the well-known artists supported by the project with Wikipedia articles include:

Berenice Abbott William Abbenseth Maxine Albro Lee Allen Charles Alston William Baziotes Romare Bearden Thomas Hart Benton Aaron Berkman Leon Bibel Samuel Bookatz Dorr Bothwell Flávio Cabral Eleanor Coen Francis Criss Rinaldo Cuneo John Steuart Curry[4] Stuart Davis Burgoyne Diller Arnold S. Eagle

Philip Evergood Claire Falkenstein Louis Ferstadt Lee Gatch Arshile Gorky Adolph Gottlieb Harry Gottlieb William Gropper Philip Guston Jules Halfant Marsden Hartley Donal Hord Jacob Kainen Morris Kantor Gwendolyn Knight Albert Kotin Lee Krasner Jacob Lawrence Tom Lea

Norman Lewis Abraham Lishinsky Michael Loew Conrad Marca-Relli John Marin Jan Matulka John McCrady Dina Melicov Paul Meltsner Katherine Milhous Jo Mora Carl Morris Alice Neel Louise Berliawsky Nevelson Frank Nuderscher Elizabeth Olds Charles Pollock Jackson Pollock Anton Refregier Ad Reinhardt Daniel Rhodes Mark Rothko

William B. Rowe Augusta Savage Louis Schanker Georgette Seabrooke Ben Shahn Harry Shoulberg John Sloan William Sommer Isaac Soyer Moses Soyer Raphael Soyer Dox Thrash Alton Tobey Mark Tobey Grant Wood William Zorach

Willem de Kooning and Santiago Martínez Delgado were also employed by the FAP temporarily but were unable to stay because they were not U.S. citizens at the time.