Lee Allen (artist) - Works Progress Administration

Works Progress Administration

Iowa artist Grant Wood became internationally known in 1930, with the completion of his painting called American Gothic, and in 1934, he was invited to join the faculty at the University of Iowa. During one of those intermediate years (1933–34), Wood also served as the Iowa director for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), in connection with which he called on Allen to assist him with various projects. Afterwards, in 1935, Allen went to Mexico, where he studied mural painting with Diego Rivera, to whom he had been introduced by Grant Wood. When he returned to Iowa, he received two additional government commissions (not through the WPA, apparently, but from the Fine Arts Section of the U.S. Treasury Department) to make indoor murals for new post offices in two small Iowa communities: In 1938, Allen created a mural titled “Soil Erosion and Control” for the post office in Onawa, Iowa. In 1940, he produced a second mural called “Conservation of Wild Life” for the post office in Emmetsburg, Iowa.