The New Deal-era Works Progress Administration sent millions back to work during the Great Depression — including many visual artists. While many works were designed to help lift people’s spirits, others documented American life during hard times; the lithographs collected in “Pressing Issues: Printmaking as Social Justice in 1930s United States” mostly feature the latter thematic focus. Curator Kathryn Koca Polite (from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Krannert Art Museum, home of the exhibition’s first incarnation) says some tap into “surrealist nightmare fuel.” That sounds appropriate for our current moment as well. Read Chali Pittman’s exhibition preview here. Historian Dana Landress will present a related talk, “Rendering Visible,” making connections between images in the exhibition and our current times, at 5 p.m. Sept. 17; register at eventbrite.com.

media release: During the Great Depression, visual artists in the United States were put to work through the relief efforts of the New Deal to provide a living wage and to bolster the spirits of the American public. Many used the opportunity to portray everyday life in the United States through images of modern and rural landscapes, leisure activities, and industrial growth, while others directed attention to economic toil and key social issues. Pressing Issues brings together work by artists who, through their art, produced radical critical commentaries on the social injustices plaguing the country in their time.

Curated by Kathryn Koca Polite, organized by the Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Sponsored in part by Illinois’ College of Fine and Applied Arts, the International Fine Print Dealers Association, and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art.

Support at the Chazen provided in part by the Anonymous Fund.

Related talk: Rendering Visible, by Dana Landress, 5 pm, Sept. 17. RSVP here.

Curator tour with James Wehn: 5 pm, Sept. 22 and Nov. 17. RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/26253185837

Exhibition celebration 5-7 pm, Oct. 8. RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/26253185837