Advancing American Art

In 1946, the Office of International Information and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. State Department organized an exhibition of 117 oil paintings and watercolors that was designed to demonstrate the ascendancy of American art at the mid-century. Described as a cultural Marshall Plan, the paintings were exhibited at various venues in the United States and abroad. Soon after its initial exhibition, the show was criticized for its "modernity" by conservative politicians, disenfranchised artists and critics. The collection became the focus of intense criticism in Congress which condemned the State Department for its purchase of the collection and for presenting the work of "left-wing"artists whose abstract works, they felt, inadequately illustrated America's ideals to the rest of the world.

Within a year the program was suspended. The paintings were recalled, stored in a warehouse, declared war surplus and sold at auction. Alabama Congressmen assisted faculty from the Auburn University Department of Art in becoming eligible for a discount during the bidding process which resulted in the acquisition of 36 of the 117 paintings for $1,072.

Auburn University's paintings include works by such important American artists as Arthur Dove, Lyonel Feininger, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, John Marin, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Ben Shahn. The collection also includes fine examples of work by Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence, the only African-American artists included in the original collection. Auburn University's Advancing American Art collection has been described as one of the finest collections of mid-20th-century American art in the Southeast. Other works from the original exhibition can be found in the permanent collections of the University of Georgia Museum of Art and the University of Oklahoma Museum of Art.