Art for the Masses: Associated American Artist Prints

December 4, 2001 – March 30, 2002

In 1939, with the goal of generating an accessible democratic art that would speak to ordinary people, Associated American Artists began producing limited-edition prints for as little as five dollars. Against the backdrop of the Great Depression and World War II, the AAA print club created dozens of prints with artists including Thomas Hart Benton, Miguel Covarrubias and Raphael Soyer, who were willing to base their art in social ideas rather than abstract theories.   Budding collector Carolyn Schneider became a member, and her careful collecting from the AAA print club and others resulted in a collection of more than 400 prints. Art for the Masses presented a selection of works from that collection, now a part of the Tacoma Art Museum’s permanent collection. Among the prints that included were works by Reginald Marsh, Isabel Bishop and Adolf Dehn.