Holger Cahill
Encyclopedia
Edgar Holger Cahill was the National Director of the Federal Art Project
of the Works Progress Administration
during the New Deal
.
in 1887 and died in 1960 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
where he is buried in the town’s cemetery. Cahill’s Icelandic family immigrated to Canada
about 1890 and then to North Dakota
as homesteaders
, anglicizing their name to Bjornson and eventually, Johnson, although they continued to speak Icelandic
at home. Extreme poverty, lack of formal education and domestic strife marked Cahill’s early childhood. When he was young, his father abandoned the family and his mother sent the young Cahill to live and work on a farm owned by an Icelandic family 50 miles away where he was mistreated. His mother remarried and together they had another child, Anna. That marriage also did not last. After two years with the Icelandic farmers, Cahill ran away at first to neighboring farms where he found work and eventually to Winnipeg
, in search of distant cousins. The cousins refused to take him in and he ended up in an orphanage. A Gaelic
-speaking family in a nearby cooperative farm community adopted Cahill and he was able to attend school regularly for the first time. After several years with the Gaelic family, he returned to North Dakota in search of his mother only to discover that his mother and step-sister had moved. Eventually he found them working on a nearby tenant farm in 1902. His mother had remarried—a younger man named Samson—and she and her son quarreled. Once again, he left home and did not see his mother again for 45 years.
during the Great Depression
. His contributions to the research, documentation and understanding of the visual arts in America were wide ranging—from the earliest crafts of the Native Americans
to the abstract expressionists
. In the 1920s, his early endorsement of American folk art
as well as the early American modernists
introduced their work to a larger public through exhibitions, catalogues and criticism. During his tenure of the WPA, his oversight of the Index of American Design established a greater understanding of the variety and quality of American iconographic imagery. His first official position in the field of visual arts was as publicity director for the Society of Independent Artists
in 1921 where he met many of the leading modernist artists of the period including John Sloan. As a former journalist, Cahill knew how to write and effectively create new interest in the Society’s exhibitions. The following year, he was hired by John Cotton Dana
to become his assistant at the Newark Museum
. At Newark, Cahill managed publicity, organized radio and newspaper coverage of the museum’s activities, purchased works by contemporary artists for the museum’s growing collection and, in 1930 and 1931, organized the first museum exhibitions of American Folk Art. During his tenure at Newark (1922–1930), he continued (with Dana’s encouragement) to write fiction, essays and short stories including art criticism for Shadowland Magazine, International Studio and the New York Herald Tribune
. He published a novel, Profane Earth in 1927 and, in 1930, a biography of Frederick Townsend Ward
and his role in the Taiping Rebellion
of 1861, A Yankee Adventurer. At Newark, he met his future wife, Dorothy Canning Miller
whom he married in 1938.
In 1932-33, Cahill served as acting director of the Museum of Modern Art
when the founding director, Alfred H. Barr Jr. took a leave of absence where he organized several notable exhibitions including American Sources of Modern Art, American Folk Art: Art of the Common Man in America and a survey exhibition American Painting and Sculpture 1862-1932. In 1934, he directed the First Municipal Art Exhibition at Rockefeller Center
in New York – the exhibition coincided with the destruction of the mural by Diego Rivera
and many of the artists threatened to withdraw. When Cahill left Newark, he employed Dorothy Miller as his assistant on his various projects. At the First Municipal Art Exhibition, Miller stepped in as Director when Cahill landed in the hospital and was unable to continue which led to her later position as curator at the Museum of Modern Art. From August, 1935 until April, 1943, he directed the Federal Art Project (WPA) under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He proved to be an imaginative, sensitive, and skillful administrator. Under his leadership art centers were established in over 100 towns and cities, murals drawing upon the geographical environment were painted in post offices throughout the country, an index of American design was produced, and the program assisted over 5000 artists to make art without restriction to content or subject matter. An entire generation of artists was nurtured, their work exhibited, and an expanded public for art was created.
In 1938 Cahill married Dorothy Canning Miller, curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art. The following year, he took a leave of absence from the WPA to stay in New York City and direct a large survey exhibition at the 1939 World’s Fair
, American Art Today. Through Miller, he continued to meet new artists and he was an avid and interested spectator of all of the programming at the Museum of Modern Art.
, and taped a memoir for the Columbia University
Oral History Project. He also received a Guggenheim Fellowship
for work on his novel Stone Dreamer, which was left unfinished at his death in 1960.
Cahill died in 1960.
Holger Cahill papers at the New York Public Library, Rare Books and Manuscripts Division
Federal Art Project
The Federal Art Project was the visual arts arm of the Great Depression-era New Deal Works Progress Administration Federal One program in the United States. It operated from August 29, 1935, until June 30, 1943. Reputed to have created more than 200,000 separate works, FAP artists created...
of the Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
during the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
.
Biography
Cahill was born Sveinn Kristjan Bjarnarsson in Skogarstrond, IcelandIceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
in 1887 and died in 1960 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,947 at the 2010 census...
where he is buried in the town’s cemetery. Cahill’s Icelandic family immigrated to Canada
Immigration to Canada
Immigration to Canada is the process by which people migrate to Canada to reside permanently in the country. The majority of these individuals become Canadian citizens. After 1947, domestic immigration law and policy went through major changes, most notably with the Immigration Act, 1976, and the...
about 1890 and then to North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
as homesteaders
Homestead Act
A homestead act is one of three United States federal laws that gave an applicant freehold title to an area called a "homestead" – typically 160 acres of undeveloped federal land west of the Mississippi River....
, anglicizing their name to Bjornson and eventually, Johnson, although they continued to speak Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
at home. Extreme poverty, lack of formal education and domestic strife marked Cahill’s early childhood. When he was young, his father abandoned the family and his mother sent the young Cahill to live and work on a farm owned by an Icelandic family 50 miles away where he was mistreated. His mother remarried and together they had another child, Anna. That marriage also did not last. After two years with the Icelandic farmers, Cahill ran away at first to neighboring farms where he found work and eventually to Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, in search of distant cousins. The cousins refused to take him in and he ended up in an orphanage. A Gaelic
Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels", including language and culture. As a noun, it may refer to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually.-Gaelic languages:...
-speaking family in a nearby cooperative farm community adopted Cahill and he was able to attend school regularly for the first time. After several years with the Gaelic family, he returned to North Dakota in search of his mother only to discover that his mother and step-sister had moved. Eventually he found them working on a nearby tenant farm in 1902. His mother had remarried—a younger man named Samson—and she and her son quarreled. Once again, he left home and did not see his mother again for 45 years.
Career
Holger Cahill is perhaps best known today for his role as National Director of the WPA's Federal Art ProjectFederal Art Project
The Federal Art Project was the visual arts arm of the Great Depression-era New Deal Works Progress Administration Federal One program in the United States. It operated from August 29, 1935, until June 30, 1943. Reputed to have created more than 200,000 separate works, FAP artists created...
during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. His contributions to the research, documentation and understanding of the visual arts in America were wide ranging—from the earliest crafts of the Native Americans
Native American art
Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present...
to the abstract expressionists
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
. In the 1920s, his early endorsement of American folk art
Folk art
Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic....
as well as the early American modernists
American modernism
American modernism like modernism in general is a trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, and is thus in its essence both progressive and optimistic...
introduced their work to a larger public through exhibitions, catalogues and criticism. During his tenure of the WPA, his oversight of the Index of American Design established a greater understanding of the variety and quality of American iconographic imagery. His first official position in the field of visual arts was as publicity director for the Society of Independent Artists
Society of Independent Artists
Society of Independent Artists was an association of American artists founded in 1916 and based in New York.Based on the French Société des Artistes Indépendants, the goal of the society was to hold annual exhibitions by avant-garde artists. Exhibitions were to be open to anyone who wanted to...
in 1921 where he met many of the leading modernist artists of the period including John Sloan. As a former journalist, Cahill knew how to write and effectively create new interest in the Society’s exhibitions. The following year, he was hired by John Cotton Dana
John Cotton Dana
John Cotton Dana was an American librarian and museum director whose main objective was to make the library relevant to the daily lives of the citizens and to promote the benefits of reading...
to become his assistant at the Newark Museum
Newark Museum
The Newark Museum is the largest museum in New Jersey, USA. It holds fine collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the ancient world...
. At Newark, Cahill managed publicity, organized radio and newspaper coverage of the museum’s activities, purchased works by contemporary artists for the museum’s growing collection and, in 1930 and 1931, organized the first museum exhibitions of American Folk Art. During his tenure at Newark (1922–1930), he continued (with Dana’s encouragement) to write fiction, essays and short stories including art criticism for Shadowland Magazine, International Studio and the New York Herald Tribune
New York Herald Tribune
The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
. He published a novel, Profane Earth in 1927 and, in 1930, a biography of Frederick Townsend Ward
Frederick Townsend Ward
Frederick Townsend Ward was an American sailor, mercenary, and soldier of fortune famous for his military victories for Imperial China during the Taiping Rebellion.-Early life:...
and his role in the Taiping Rebellion
Taiping Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion was a widespread civil war in southern China from 1850 to 1864, led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan, who, having received visions, maintained that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ, against the ruling Manchu-led Qing Dynasty...
of 1861, A Yankee Adventurer. At Newark, he met his future wife, Dorothy Canning Miller
Dorothy Canning Miller
Dorothy Canning Miller was an American art curator and one of the most influential people in American modern art for more than half of the 20th century...
whom he married in 1938.
In 1932-33, Cahill served as acting director of the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
when the founding director, Alfred H. Barr Jr. took a leave of absence where he organized several notable exhibitions including American Sources of Modern Art, American Folk Art: Art of the Common Man in America and a survey exhibition American Painting and Sculpture 1862-1932. In 1934, he directed the First Municipal Art Exhibition at Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...
in New York – the exhibition coincided with the destruction of the mural by Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
and many of the artists threatened to withdraw. When Cahill left Newark, he employed Dorothy Miller as his assistant on his various projects. At the First Municipal Art Exhibition, Miller stepped in as Director when Cahill landed in the hospital and was unable to continue which led to her later position as curator at the Museum of Modern Art. From August, 1935 until April, 1943, he directed the Federal Art Project (WPA) under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He proved to be an imaginative, sensitive, and skillful administrator. Under his leadership art centers were established in over 100 towns and cities, murals drawing upon the geographical environment were painted in post offices throughout the country, an index of American design was produced, and the program assisted over 5000 artists to make art without restriction to content or subject matter. An entire generation of artists was nurtured, their work exhibited, and an expanded public for art was created.
In 1938 Cahill married Dorothy Canning Miller, curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art. The following year, he took a leave of absence from the WPA to stay in New York City and direct a large survey exhibition at the 1939 World’s Fair
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
, American Art Today. Through Miller, he continued to meet new artists and he was an avid and interested spectator of all of the programming at the Museum of Modern Art.
Writing
When the Federal Arts Project ended in 1943, Cahill returned to New York to concentrate on writing novels and essays. Hampered by various illnesses after his busy tenure as Director of the Federal Art Project and a severe heart attack in 1947, he managed to complete two novels, Look South to the Polar Star, in 1947, and The Shadow of My Hand, in 1956, set in the Midwest of his youth. In the same year he began studying poetry with Stanley KunitzStanley Kunitz
Stanley Jasspon Kunitz was an American poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress twice, first in 1974 and then again in 2000.-Biography:...
, and taped a memoir for the Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
Oral History Project. He also received a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
for work on his novel Stone Dreamer, which was left unfinished at his death in 1960.
Cahill died in 1960.
External links
Holger Cahill papers at the New York Public Library, Rare Books and Manuscripts Division
Further reading
- Jeffers, Wendy (Fall, 1992 [actual issue date] Volume 31, #4, 1991). Journal of the Archives of American Art. "Holger Cahill and American Art". pp. 2–11.
- Jeffers, Wendy (September 1995). Antiques magazine. "Holger Cahill and American Folk Art". pp. 326–335.
- Contreras, Belisario R. "Tradition and Innovation in New Deal Art". London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1983.
- WPA: Art for the Millions, 1973 Francis O'Connor, Essay by Holger Cahill "American Resources in The Arts".