WHO OWNS WPA PRINTS?
TRANSCRIPT OF PANEL DISCUSSION HELD AT THE PRINT FAIR
NOVEMBER 4, 2000 -- page 3
As to the GSA's legal theory of ownership my own opinions are based on what I have been watching for 30 years. First, the GSA has chosen to distort the historical reality of the various projects. It states that "During the Depression era, the WPA recognized the plight of artists and commissioned paintings and sculpture for the embellishment for public architecture, including federal buildings, post offices, and courthouses". This is comically untrue and is contrary to the Treasury's commissioning policies in the WPA Federal Art Project's relief projects. The text places all New Deal Art, all of the art programs, the Treasury's and the Federal Art Projects, under something it calls the WPA. This use of the initials "WPA" as an umbrella for all the other projects is a deliberate legal misrepresentation on the GSA's part to make its theory of ownership seem coherent, to finesse the differences between the projects' sparsely documented ownership policies, and to hide the many institutional differences between the Treasury Section, that procured art by contract, and the PWAP and WPA/FAP that produced art for a work relief wage.
Consider how this impacts prints. The PWAP allowed for the established craft tradition of artist's proofs. It states in its regulations that the printmaker "shall be allowed to retain for his files, one print". The WPA Federal Art Project has no such written policy about proofs, and in practice, as its artists have often testified, the Federal Art Project permitted two or three proofs to be kept. By claiming that the PWAP was under the WPA, the GSA can of course apply PWAP's written regulations to the Federal Art Project and presumably claim all proofs other than one per artist as its own property. The GSA's more global claims of ownership are based on similarly dubious arguments. Works once allocated alone to institutions are dealt with differently. It acknowledges that existing written regulations state that an allocation is a transfer of title. However, printed on the allocation forms is the simple statement that if an institution involved no longer wants the art it has received, it should notify the Government of the fact. Allocations are therefore interpreted as "transfers of restricted title" and, although a request to return art to the government is a voluntary option, it understands it is somehow establishing "reversionary rights" to the government. The same theory, with a few added factors, such as tax support and private ownership, applies to loans, especially those curious permanent loans.
Similarly, if a private institution has on its walls a Treasury or WPA mural and wants to destroy it, it's supposed to ask the GSA to conserve it and presumably, the GSA has the right not to and therefore, let it go without recourse to an act of Congress.
The very best way of solving this is to cut through the bureaucratic nonsense and to seek an act of Congress ourselves. Fighting the Federal Government in court on such technical matters might lead to years of expensive wrangling that will end up at some obscure, administrative law judge at Washington upholding the GSA. As we know, they are currently circulating letters to people who have placed New Deal prints on E-Bay or TV's Antiques Roadshow. They are also sending legal notices to the various artists' organizations and museums and publishing these inventories.
The best way to deal with this matter is to launch a direct, public challenge to the GSA's ownership position, stressing that New Deal art was paid for by the people for the people - not the government. If such a campaign could also get the GSA and /or Congress to recognize that enough New Deal art survives in government and private institutions to preserve its legacy, and that it no longer matters who owns the residue still in private custody, this unfortunate situation could be resolved in time for the 70th Anniversary of the start of the New Deal projects in 2003.
Will Barnet: I happen to have been a part of the WPA for a short time. The thing that I would like to stress is that when I came here to New York 1931, it was the height of the Depression. I saw breadlines all around the city, dark streets and "To Let" signs in every rooming house and every apartment on Park Avenue.
It was a very threatening situation. I worked at the Art Students' League during that period, became the Master Printer, and printed not only for the classes but for the artists who used to come in as well. My relationship with the WPA came about through Gustave von Groschwitz. He hired me because the prints they were making were coming out black and muddy, and generally in bad shape. Knowing that I was the Master Printer at the ASL, I was hired to check on what was happening with the printing process. Mr. Von Groschwitz also hired me as an artist, as he liked my work, so I had a double role, both as printer and artist.
I was involved with the WPA from 1935 to 1936, I believe. The print editions we made were small, 25 at most. I have a print called An Old Man, which I did in the Bowery. As far as I know there are only two or three prints left out of an edition of about seven, one of them was up for auction recently. What the government did with the rest, I do not know. I printed many editions for the government, some of my own, most for other artists.
The WPA revitalized the artists at that time. It was such a wonderful thing that the government gave this possibility at a time when people were literally starving to death. As a young man I was very proud to be part of it. I thought it was one of the great moments in US history, both socially and artistically. It helped artists to develop at a time when their options were basically non-existent.
Sylvan Cole: I will now address this part of the discussion as a dealer in fine prints, which include prints done for the WPA. The WPA prints dealers offer on the market come from three basic sources:
- From private individuals who may have retrieved them as they were about to be trashed or from inheritance.
- Public auction
- From the artists themselves who were on the project
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