Works Progress Administration
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| - | '''Anarchism in the United States''' spans a wide range of [[anarchist]] [[philosophy]], from [[individualist anarchism]] to [[anarchist communism]] and other less known forms. The first American anarchist publication was ''The Peaceful Revolutionist'', edited by [[Josiah Warren]], whose earliest experiments and writings predate [[Pierre Proudhon]]. Major individualist anarchists include [[Henry David Thoreau]], [[Lysander Spooner]], [[Benjamin Tucker]], and [[Murray Rothbard]]. Other influential anarchists include anarcho-communist [[Emma Goldman]], [[Alexander Berkman]], [[social ecology|social ecologist]] [[Murray Bookchin]], and [[linguist]] [[Noam Chomsky]]. | ||
| - | America has two main traditions, native and immigrant, with the native tradition being strongly individualist and the immigrant tradition being collectivist and anarcho-communist. Individualist anarchism in the United States is strongly influenced by [[Thomas Jefferson]], [[Thomas Paine]], [[Henry David Thoreau]], and [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]]. | + | The '''Works Progress Administration''' (renamed in 1939 as the '''Work Projects Administration'''; '''WPA''') was the largest and most ambitious American [[New Deal agency]], employing millions of people (mostly unskilled men) to carry out [[public works]] projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. In a much smaller but more famous project, [[Federal Project Number One]], the WPA employed musicians, artists, writers, actors and directors in large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects. |
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| - | == In the arts == | + | |
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| - | Many American artists of the early 20th century were influenced by anarchist ideas, if they weren't anarchists themselves. The [[Ashcan School]] of American realism included anarchist artists, as well as artists such as [[Rockwell Kent]] and [[George Bellows]] that were influenced by anarchist ideas. Abstract expressionism also included anarchist artists such as [[Mark Rothko]] and painters such as [[Jackson Pollock]], who had adopted radical ideas during his experience as a muralist for the [[Works Progress Administration]]. Pollock's father had also been a [[Industrial Workers of the World|Wobbly]]. | + | |
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| - | [[David Weir]] has argued in ''[[Anarchy and Culture]]'' that anarchism's only had some success in the sphere of cultural avant-gardism because of its failure as a political movement; cognizant of anarchism's claims to overcome the barrier between art and political activism, he nevertheless suggests that this is not achieved in reality. Weir suggests that for the "ideologue" it might be possible to adapt "[[aesthetics]] to [[politics]]" but that "from the perspective of the poet" a solution might be to "adapt the politics to the aesthetics". He identifies this latter strategy with anarchism, on account of its [[individualism]]. Weir has also suggested that "the contemporary critical strategy of aestheticizing politics" among [[marxism|marxists]] such as Fredric Jameson is a product of the demise of marxism as a [[state]] ideology. "The situation whereby ideology attempts to operate outside of politics has already pointed Marxism toward postmodernist culture, just as anarchism moved into the culture of modernism when it ceased to have political validity". | + | |
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| - | In the late 20th century, anarchism and the arts could primarily be associated with the [[collage]] works by [[James Koehnline]], [[Johan Humyn Being]], and others, whose work was being published in anarchist magazines, including [[Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed]] and [[Fifth Estate]]. [[The Living Theatre]], a theatrical troupe headed by [[Judith Malina]] and [[Julian Beck]], were outspoken about their anarchism, often incorporating anarchistic themes into their performances. | + | |
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| - | In the 1990s, anarchists were involved in the [[mail art]] movement, which can be described as "art which uses the postal service in some way." This is related to the involvement of many anarchists in the [[zine]] movement. And many contemporary anarchists are involved in making art in the form of flyposters, stencils, and radical puppets. | + | |
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| - | == See also == | + | |
| - | *[[American modernism in the visual arts]] | + | |
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The Works Progress Administration (renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration; WPA) was the largest and most ambitious American New Deal agency, employing millions of people (mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. In a much smaller but more famous project, Federal Project Number One, the WPA employed musicians, artists, writers, actors and directors in large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects.
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