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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2009
In the fall of 1929, just after the stock market crash but before its effects were widely felt, a group of radical artists and writers in New York established the John Reed Club, named after the already legendary journalist, poet, and revolutionary activist. The founders, some of them members of the Communist Party, some loosely associated with the party's cultural magazine New Masses, were committed but restless young men in search of a focus for their political energies. Soon after the club began, the artist members created an art school, organized exhibitions, and sponsored a lecture series and discussion groups with emphasis on the practice and theory of art and art history from a Marxist point of view. As the Depression deepened, with dire consequences to artists dependent on an art market in a state of collapse, the John Reed Club's approach attracted growing attention.
1. Transcript of an interview with Max Spivak conducted by Harlan Phillips, n.d. (c. 1965), p. 18. Archives of American Art, Washington, D.C.
2. Transcript of an interview with Stuart Davis conducted by Harlan Phillips, 1962, p. 322. Archives of American Art.
3. JRC Bulletin 1, No. 2 (02 1935)Google Scholar. Louis Lozowick Papers, Archives of American Art.
4. Stuart Davis interview, p. 332.
5. The Communist International 14, No. 10 (10 1937): 692.Google Scholar
6. Stuart Davis manuscript notes headed “Artists Congress.” These are undated but were evidently made in late July or early August, 1935. Stuart Davis Papers, Archives of American Art.
7. Ibid.
8. First American Artists' Congress (New York, 1936).Google Scholar
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10. “The Artists' Congress and American Art,” in American Artists' Congress, Second Annual Exhibition (New York, 1939).Google Scholar
11. Max Spivak interview, p. 15.
12. Eliosoph, Paula to Lozowick, Louis, 04 24, 1937Google Scholar. Louis Lozowick Papers, Archives of American Art.
13. Stuart Davis to Central Executive Board, American Artists' Congress, May 4, 1939. Stuart Davis Papers, Archives of American Art.
14. Ibid.
15. Carl Holty journal, March 15, 1965. Archives of American Art.
16. Mimeographed statement of the Central Executive Board, April 27, 1940. Louis Lozowick Papers, Archives of American Art.
17. Meyer Schapiro to Aline Bernstein, March 13, 1937. Aline Saarinen Papers, Archives of American Art.
18. Ilya Bolotowsky to Meyer Schapiro. Undated draft in Ilya Bolotowsky Papers, Archives of American Art.
19. Meyer Schapiro to Ilya Bolotowsky, February 11, 1940. Ilya Bolotowsky Papers, Archives of American Art.
20. Typed statement addressed “To the Chairman of the New York Branch of the American Artists' Congress.” Ilya Bolotowsky Papers, Archives of American Art. The chairman of the New York branch was William Zorach, who had not attended a meeting in two years.
21. Mimeographed statement of the Central Executive Board, April 27, 1940. Louis Lozowick Papers, Archives of American Art.
22. Mimeographed statement “To the Members of the American Artists' Congress.” Ilya Bolotowsky Papers, Archives of American Art.
23. George Biddle diary, April 3 (sic), 1940. Typescript, Archives of American Art.
24. George Biddle to the author, February 8, 1966.
25. Carl Holty journal, May 3, 1965. Typescript, Archives of American Art.
26. Central Executive Board statement, April 27, 1940.
27. Lynd Ward to the author, September 9, 1966.
28. Stuart Davis to the Central Executive Board, American Artists' Congress, Inc., April 5, 1940. Carbon copy, Stuart Davis Papers, Archives of American Art.
29. Stuart Davis to Edward A. Jewell, New York Times, April 9, 1940. Carbon copy, Stuart Davis Papers, Archives of American Art.
30. New York Herald Tribune, 04 15, 1940Google Scholar. Clipping in Stuart Davis Papers.
31. New York Herald Tribune, 04 17, 1940Google Scholar. Clipping in Stuart Davis Papers.
32. Davis, Stuart to Biberman, Edward, 04 24, 1940Google Scholar. Carbon copy in Stuart Davis Papers.
33. Original membership list (undated) and “Foreword of the Constitution …” (undated), Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors records. Microfilm roll N 69–75, frames 398 and 429. Archives of American Art.