In 1940, New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) announced an unusual contest, “The Artist as Reporter,” with $1,750 in prizes (about $37,000 when adjusted for inflation). It was co-sponsored by the soon-to-debut PM newspaper as “a search for artists who could report the news with brush and pen.”
Museum president Nelson A. Rockefeller said in the press release that the competition “promises to open up new possibilities for the artist and to expand the field of journalistic art.” He added:
“It is interesting to recall that the work of Winslow Homer, one of our greatest artists, first came prominently to public notice when he was a pictorial artist for Harper’s Weekly. And the tradition of journalistic art (which once gave employment to hundreds of artists) has associated with it the names of such outstanding American artists as George Liks, William J. Glackens and John Sloan.”
In the Call for Entries that went out to 10,000 artists in New York and beyond, “Journalistic Art” was defined in these terms:
“What is Journalistic Art? It may be a drawing or painting of some violent or dramatic action, a rescue at a fire, a strike scene, a police raid, a prize fight. And certainly the whole world of sports. Or it may be a sketch of faces in the news: well-known faces of politicians, criminals, attorneys, theatre people; or of unknown faces, of people the news affects – wives waiting at a mine rescue, men on a picket line, children on the impatient line for ‘Pinocchio.’
Or a picture could be a record of contemporary scenes that will one day spell 1940: workmen patching the Trylon at the World’s Fair; a man selling ‘Confucius Say’ handbills on Broadway. It could be, too, a purely descriptive picture of a parade, a horse-race, a crowd in the bleachers.
These then would be journalistic pictures, with the Artist as Reporter. And there are many others. The news-minded artist will discover them for himself.”
The response to the unprecedented contest was a record for the Museum. Nearly 2,000 entries were submitted, the majority from New York. In all, 27 states, Canada and Washington D.C. were represented.
A jury of distinguished artists, including realist painters John Sloan and William Gropper, selected 200 pieces to be included in a show that opened on April 16, 1940, and wrapped up three weeks later.
The big prize winner was “Train Wreck,” a wash drawing in blue and black by Lionel S. Reiss (above) of New York City. It received the $250 prize voted by the public during the first two weeks of the exhibit, plus one of 20 cash prizes of $50 each awarded by the judges.
The dramatic illustration wasn’t based on a real event, but it struck a chord.
“Train Wreck is a vivid drawing, packed with action, of a fast passenger train derailed. The drawing shows the engine and four coaches on their side, wounded and dead being lifted out by rescuers, and other passengers, dazed and terrified, stumbling out in the milling throng.”
Coincidentally, a disastrous train wreck had recently happened not far from New York after the artist had drawn his picture. In a somewhat strange analogy, the press release announcing the 25 artists who received cash awards praised Reiss’ journalistic intuition with this statement:
“The coincidence suggests that Mr. Reiss, the artist, has that sixth sense which often brings reporters to the spot at the moment before news breaks.”
MoMA’s website lists the 172 artists whose art was selected for the show. Some familiar names include Ben Shahn, Philip Guston, Reginald Marsh, New Yorker magazine cover artists Arthur Getz and Garrett Price, Abraham Jaffee (better known as Al Jaffee of MAD Magazine fame), and Richard Scarry, the legendary children’s book artist.
Despite the gendered language typical of the times in the Call for Entries (“the news-minded artist will discover them for himself”), a number of women were represented in the exhibition as well: Nan Lurie, Elizabeth Olds, Lisa Rhanna, Wilma Riley, Doris Rosenthal, Julia Rogers, Georgette Seabrooks, Bernarda Byson Shahn, Helen R. Stoller and Sylvia Wald.
PM — short for Picture Magazine — was a very visual newspaper in the style of glossy magazines of its time, such as Life and Look. A third of its pages were filled with photographs and specially-commissioned illustrations.
Among its most famous visual contributors were Dr. Seuss, who published more than 400 cartoons; abstract expressionist Ad Reinhard; photographer Margaret Bourke-White; and Arthur Felig — better known as “Weegee.”
The progressive publication was unique in that it didn’t run advertisements, which may have been one of the reasons it didn’t do well financially and folded in 1948.
Speaking of its business model, this curious addition to the Call for Entries in the “Artist as Reporter” contest reveals PM’s approach to hiring artists.
“P.M. doubts that staff jobs with salaries is the best way to employ artists. Rather it believes in finding and knowing 30-40 artists whom it may call on.”
I wonder if the participating artists would agree with that statement.
