¶ … Huffington Post Attn: Adrian Johnson

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Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

In response to the recent article, Review of Abstract Expressionism, about the failures of Abstract Expressionism, it is important to remember the how American art during the 1930s embodied democratic values. In the 1930s, America was experiencing a depression that is commonly known as the Great Depression. This period was characterized by significant economic difficulties and collapse that culminated in a war. While the country was renowned as a land of opportunity and hope during this period, the Great Depression changed people's perception regarding the United States since it became a nation of despair and depression. Given the underlying economic situation in this period, artwork and the field of art in general was seemingly irrelevant as many artists were experiencing tremendous economic challenges and remained unemployed (Hittner, n.d.).

However, the series of social liberal recovery programs initiated by President Francis D. Roosevelt known...

As a result of these changes, American artists started to create works that reflected and represented American values and society. As artists were paid to create these works, their images and paintings represented the realities of the Great Depression period. Apart from representing the ideals of the Great Depression period, American art in the 1930s personified the country's democratic values through embracing political and social change that was taking place.
Abstract Expressionism during the 1930s was a defining and influential art movement that lasted for a few years and is regarded as the country's first original form of art (Fisher, n.d.). This form of art embodied America's democratic values through incorporating political implications in artists' expressions of their ideas and thoughts. Artists during this period viewed art as a process that portrayed life and a means for developing new values that would enlighten people on the issue of pure truth (Fisher, n.d.). Pure truth was an issue that surpassed politics and ordinary experiences to capture the most important things in the society. In this case, American artwork, through Abstract Expressionism in the 1930s, entailed portraying the spiritual, moral, and relational issues that were necessarily to the wellbeing of the American society.

One of the major examples of artworks that embodied America's democratic values in the 1930s was Building a Nation (Construction), which was created by Leon Bibel in 1937. Bibel arrived in New York…