Landscape (WPA)

Ted Witonski

This intaglio was published by the NYC WPA/FAP. 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 unemployed 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.

Many of the East Coast WPA artists were Social Realists who delved into the human condition, pointing out the problems the socciety and common man was facing during the Great Depression of the mid 1930s.

Ted Witonski did this aquatint image of an old granary for the WPA during the Great Depression. The nightscape depicts a small village around the mill and light from a setting sun in the skyline. The image is listed in the New York Public Library as WPA Etchings #10.