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The Great Depression found the Weston family
snug in the Adirondacks, warmed by the woodstove
and nourished by root vegetables through the long
winters. From 1936 to 1938 Weston worked at a fever
pitch on 840 square feet of murals commissioned
by the Treasury Relief Art Project for the lobby
of the General Services Administration building
in Washington, D.C. He designed twenty-two panels
that depict dynamic moments in the federal construction
process and convey the message that America’s
vitality and resourcefulness would help it recover
from the Depression. Leavened with humor, the murals
include a send-up of Grant Wood’s American
Gothic under an oversized pair of pliers.
Driven by the urge “to get it right,” Weston
used a detail-rich technique. The precision of
this finely patterned realism effected a permanent,
tectonic shift in his style. <previous
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(Pliers detail) Supply Branch of Procurement,
1937, oil on canvas, 10’x20’. The north
wall of Weston’s mural in the General Services
Administration Building, Washington, D.C.
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