Hobos to Street People: Artists’ Responses to Homelessness from the New Deal to Present

Description

The year 2008 marks the 75th anniversary of the New Deal, a time when the United States government responded to the devastating impact of the Great Depression by creating powerful programs to assist those in poverty. The Hobos to Street People exhibition compares artistic interpretations of homelessness created during this 75-year span–from the Dust Bowl migrants of the 1930s to the stigmatized street people of today–with an emphasis on California.

Over the years, artists have shown different aspects of poverty and homelessness. During the Depression, WPA artists portrayed the lives of the poorest Americans both in “noble”and negative images. The work of artists such as Dorothea Lange often appeared in popular magazines such as Life and Time, profoundly influencing attitudes towards poverty. From World War II through the 1980s, artists tended to portray the homeless as degenerates unworthy of the government’s interest. Contemporary California artists, however, are witnessing, documenting, and commenting on today’s poverty in ways more akin to artists of the Depression era. This exhibition reflects this evolution and examines one of the most fundamental of human needs: shelter.

Hobos to Street People features original works by artists who bring a wide range of cultural viewpoints, historical perspectives, and positions on the topic, including Dorothea Lange, Rockwell Kent, Charles Surendorf, Giacomo Patri, Francisco Dominguez, Jane “in vain” Winckelman, Sandow Birk, Art Hazelwood, and the San Francisco Print Collective.