Art: Political Paintings

In the 1930s, when leftist WPArtists covered the walls of quiet rural post offices with murals depicting the horrors of U.S. life, Americans pondered the lesson that even painting can be used for political propaganda. In St. Louis last week they proved that the lesson had been learned. Eleven paintings were removed from an exhibition at St. Louis’ Artists’ Guild. Pretext: their “controversial character.” Most of the banned canvases were critical of the New Deal.

Follies oj 1932-44, one of the pariah paintings, showed Franklin Roosevelt, crowned and gaily tossing flat money in a ballet of smirking chorines labeled WPA, OWI, PWA, RFC. Painter of Follies of 1932-44 was Mrs. Mabel Meeker Edsall, art instructor at St. Louis’ John Burroughs School. Four more of her paintings were also banned.

Still in the show were:

¶Another Edsall painting showing Franklin Roosevelt, enthroned, crowned and courted by winsome bureaucrats.

¶An original Rickly (And So the Baby Grew Up), which showed the New Deal, a be-nimbused infant in 1932, grown in 1944 into a brute armed with a club.

Said Painter Edsall in reviewing her rejections: “I thought we had free speech, but we don’t have free painting.”

Said Painter Rickly: “It seems so coercive, particularly in an election year.”