Arts and Letters

I have here before me the obituary column of The New York Times, November 8th, 1973 on the death of an old friend. The heading reads, "George Biddle: Muralist and Portraitist was 88. Organized Depression Arts Project—Best known for Justice Building Frescoes—"

The column is no more than two inches in width. For that matter most obituary columns are not more than two inches—seems like a tight space to squeeze an active life of 88 years into. It does not matter who or what you are or did—birth, schooling, profession, aspirations, dreams, accomplishments, marriage, children, all get mashed into the column and if you don't like it… go fly a kite. Why did they edit the lean years of a man's life?

The years of the early thirties when the Depression was upon the country, George Biddle found himself in the midst of artists, most of them hungry and no jobs, some polishing apples and some rebellious, organizations of unions affiliated with the C.I.O., Artists' Congress, trends towards Art and Social Significance, A.F. of L. Brotherhood of Mural Painters, Paperhangers and Decorators. In most of these activities George Biddle wrote articles, made speeches, and signed petitions; these were issues he honestly believed and fought for. Politically most artists and intellectuals were liberal, some socialistic, but not communist.

Biddle was a graduate in law from Harvard, and chose the profession of art. He lived a carefree bohemian life on a modest income, in France, Italy, Tahiti, and Mexico where he was inspired by the Mexican Renaissance of mural painting. The Times goes on to say, "George Biddle with many of his artist friends on the breadlines in the depression of 1933 wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposing that the Federal Government support mural painting. Although the Commission on Fine Arts was initially opposed, George Biddle persevered, and later that year a work relief program was established. In six months some 15,000 paintings were produced, many of which found their way into Government buildings all over the country. The project was later expanded and remained in effect through the thirties."

What the Times did not say was that Biddle had to enlist the cooperation of such friends as Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, Rex Tugwell, Jerome Frank, Louis McHenry Howe, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, Henry T. Hunt, Ned Bruce, Harry Hopkins, to help get the Art Project accepted and put in quick working order. Neither can I understand why the Times should insert a paragraph that "Mr. Biddle never quite reconciled himself to abstractionism and in recent years he faded from public view. A number of more modern artists and critics came to see him as a conservative or even a reactionary in art terms." As far as I remember there was no discrimination against any art form on the Government Art Projects that Biddle inaugurated. It was The New York Times art section that for years kept certain exhibitions from being mentioned or reviewed in its pages.

George sought and entertained people in all walks of life; he was quite frank and held discussions on subjects of Art, Freedom, Capitalism, Love, Hate, Democracy, Communism, Stalinism, Trotskyism, Fascism,... including the thought of class allegiance—was he a traitor to his class? Although he claimed that it never bothered him.

At one of his cocktail parties in Croton, he made the embarrassing error of inviting among many guests Max Eastman, an admirer of Trotsky, and Bob Minor, a Stalinist and Communist Party official. To say the least, it turned into a heated affair. However, George was more careful in selecting his guests from then on. With all his protestations and attacks on communism, a letter was published in The Magazine of Art calling the murals of George Biddle in the Justice Building, among other things, communist propaganda. I'll always remember the time when the American Legion of Westchester had threatened, pressured and intimidated The Katonah Public Library into denying me the right to exhibit my work. The only artist who came to my assistance was George Biddle.