In 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal began a series of nationwide programs to provide aid to artists affected by the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Federal Art Project (FAP) supported individual artists and also created more than 100 community art centers across the nation. The centers provided paid staff positions, exhibitions, and free art classes to adults and children. These activities were central to the goal of the FAP to place arts into the lives of everyday Americans.
The People’s Art Center in St. Louis was founded in 1942 under the FAP program. Remarkable as the first interracial art center while much of the city was segregated, it offered African American artists opportunities to study and exhibit. The center was created by a group of Black and white St. Louis philanthropists who envisioned that it would “bring together people of all racial origins, religious faiths, economic levels, and ages for creative self-expression through a common interest in arts and crafts.”
From 1942 to 1965 the center offered free art classes for children and adults as well as exhibitions of student, local, and national artists. At its peak in 1951–1952, the center served 1,385 children and 702 adults. It offered many of the area’s African American artists their first opportunity to exhibit, giving them visibility for potential inclusion in the juried shows sponsored by the Urban League and City Art Museum (now the Saint Louis Art Museum).
Selected Works of Art
Looking Prompts
- Using the name of the sculpture, Gorilla, create an acrostic poem about this artwork as you look at it. An acrostic poem uses each letter of a word as the beginning for a line in the poem. For example, here is an acrostic using the word cat:
Careful
Agile
Timid
- What word would you use to describe the pose of this Gorilla? What are some other possible poses the artist could have chosen? Create these poses with your body, if you are comfortable—or draw them.
- Why do you imagine the artist chose to carve the Gorilla in this pose?
- Houston Chandler carved Gorilla out of wood. Imagine if it were made from a different material.
- What would it be like if it were made of stone? What if it were made of metal? Or if it were made from fabric and stuffed like a plush animal?
- What material would you use if you were to make your own gorilla?
Drawing extension
- Imagine that you could create an environment or background for Gorilla. Draw a picture of your background. Why did you choose the background you did?
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About this Artwork
Muscular limbs compressed into a tight pose convey this gorilla’s physical power. The sophisticated incorporation of wood grain and reductive form attest to Houston Chandler’s artistic skill. In 1960 Chandler gave a lecture at the Saint Louis Art Museum about sculpting animals. He recommended visiting the St. Louis Zoo to get to know them up close. He wasn’t interested, however, in exactly replicating them but rather used abstraction to find what he described as “the simplicity that brings out the most powerful line of expression.”
Chandler taught sculpture and etching at the People’s Art Center. Having been the second African American to receive an Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa, he was one of the most highly trained instructors there. His sculpture Gorilla testifies to the level of artistry among the center’s staff.
In addition to working at the People’s Art Center, Chandler taught art at Vashon High School in St. Louis, where he had previously attended as a student. A talented athlete and artist, Chandler coached numerous championship track and football teams in the area. Early in his tenure at Vashon, he drew the assignment of line coach for the varsity football team. The students were particularly surprised when he regularly beat them in sprint challenges.
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Looking Prompts
- What is a feeling that comes to you as you look at this picture? What do you see that makes you say that?
- Write a list of adjectives to describe what you see in this work of art.
- Imagine the space where the person in this drawing may be sitting. Consider what they may be seeing or hearing.
- Draft a story from the point of view of the figure. What is the setting? What happened just before this moment? Predict what might happen next in the story. Assign a title to the story and add characters if necessary.
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About this Artwork
Frederick Alston was another longtime instructor at the People’s Art Center. Alston not only taught high school art but was also the first cartoonist and art director for the St. Louis American newspaper. One of Alston’s students was the artist Spencer Banks. Banks already had a career in commercial art, and in 1939 the St. Louis Argus ran his short-lived comic strip Pokenia, one of the first to feature an African American female lead. Even though he was an established artist, Banks signed up for the first adult class offered by the People’s Art Center in 1942. Continuing his instruction there for nearly a decade, he garnered prizes in almost every local exhibition then available to African Americans in the St. Louis area.
The quick marks that render volume in his figure sketch are sensitively balanced with his perceptive evocation of the young model’s emotional presence, demonstrating why the artist was sought out for portrait commissions throughout his career.
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Image Credits
Image Credits in Order of Appearance
Houston Chandler, American, 1914–2015; Gorilla, c.1946; wood; 8 5/8 x 7 3/4 x 5 1/8 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Museum Purchase 1124:2010; © Houston Chandler
Spencer Thornton Banks, American, 1912–1983; Drawing from Adult Sketch Class, People’s Art Center, 1947; red and black chalk on paper; sheet: 25 3/8 x 19 1/8 inches; George B. Vashon Museum 2021.4; © Estate of Spencer Thornton Banks