To Weston, decorative possibilities in modern construction materials have proved as fascinating as the intricate weaving of Oriental textiles; yet it is to the study of such designs that he owes largely his ability to telescope a multiplicity of details into ordered design.
Dorothy Grafly, Philadelphia Record, 1936
The New Deal Murals
The Great Depression found the Weston family (with three children) 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.