Monday, August 3 was my first day at the National Archives (College Park, Maryland), and it was amazing. I was the proverbial kid in a candy store. After signing in and getting my ID card, I hightailed it to Still Pix, the main repository of most, if not all, government photographs. The focus of this trip was to explore the Section of Fine Arts/U.S. Maritime Commission competition to decorate the President Jackson-class of round-the-world passenger-cargo ships.
The Section of Fine Arts (the Section), had photos taken of all entries for their competitions. These made a nice reference to award secondary commissions and provided images for press releases. The first folder contained a 40 page list of the artists who entered the Maritime Commission competition. I had hoped, but was not sure if such a list would exist, and to hit it in the first folder was incredibly fortunate.
Section competitions were anonymous ones. Each entry had a sealed envelope containing the artist's name and address affixed to the back, which would only be opened when the winner(s) were selected. Until then, they were assigned a number and referred to by that number. There were hundreds of photos. However, they would not lay flat. And being glossy, the ceiling lights played havoc with getting a clean shot. (I photographed the photos. Scanning them at 25 cents each, was a prohibitive expense, one I may revisit though.) With great effort, I was able to get clean-ish shots.
Now ... You have to start somewhere, so who was Entry #1?
Wow! This is a stunning piece which would have gone into the dining room had it been chosen, but much too modern for the Section. (American President Lines, owners of President Jackson, definitely would've followed through on their threats to paint out anything they didn't like.) The circular pieces were to flank the mural, but were abandoned due to a combination of budgetary reasons and the lack of entries.
This was my first time looking at these files, yet Entry #1 looked familiar. That mystery would have to wait. I was on a tight schedule; no time for ruminating.
When I returned home, I started sorting through this digital pile of material I had gathered. (Hokey-smoke, Bullwinkle, what have I gotten myself into?) Fortunately, few surprises in regards to the overall timeline of this competition, with many things fleshed out a little bit more. The big "get" was the photos of the entries. It's natural to wonder what wasn't chosen. Seventy-two pieces had to be selected from over 1,400 entries; leaving a lot left over.
Back to Entry #1.
It was done by Arshile Gorky, a name I've seen, but one I know little about. His style was a precursor to Abstract Expressionism, among his better known works are his Newark (NJ) Airport murals. Going through my growing collection of New Deal art books and exhibit catalogs, I revisited For the People: American Mural Drawings of the 1930s and 1940s. (You can read the text here.) The image in this exhibit was similar, but not exact. Then I came across this website. You can see the color version of what's in the above photo. (You'll have to scroll down some.) The dimensions listed do not jive with what's listed in For the People, which was an entry for the 1939 New York World's Fair, but they do agree with the scale requested by the Section for the Maritime Commission competition. It appears Gorky revised the New York World's Fair entry for the latter competition.
The evidence is compelling, and I've forwarded these thoughts to the National Gallery of Art, where this piece is currently held. And if I can get an exhibit about the Maritime Commission competition together, the Gorky piece would be a must have.
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