Mark created several paintings expressing his horror and anger over the atrocities inflicted by the Japanese on the Chinese when they invaded the mainland in 1937. The artist read newspaper accounts of the war, and Execution may have been directly inspired by newspaper photographs or motion-picture newsreels. Bound Man, 1939 (Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.), and Execution are concerned with the brutal killing of defenseless victims and reveal Mark’s spiritual debt to Francisco Goya (1746-1828). Mark conveyed the brutality of murder by his forceful brushstrokes, inspired by the surfaces and thick muscular style of Mexican muralists such as David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974). In Execution the entire image points to the unseen murderer. What appears to be several bodies is actually only one man, who, in the agony of excruciating pain and death, gyrates from side to side until he collapses to the ground. The man’s constricted, bound body has been compressed into the shape of a sack. Human life had become worthless; as if to suggest that the victim has lost his humanity, Mark portrayed him faceless, devoid of any individuality. Such treatment also suggests that Mark intended this image to have universal application, a pictorial condemnation of all inhuman barbarism.

Four years after the stock market crash of 1929, which triggered the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt initiated the New Deal, a program of domestic reform meant to revive the economy and alleviate the problem of mass unemployment. Toward these ends, he established various new federal agencies, putting many more people to work to do the increased business of government. Thousands of artists were employed, most through the largest program, the Works Progress Administration. Although the government did not dictate the type of art that was to be produced, it did encourage the use of a representational style and American themes. As a result, most of the art created in the decade prior to World War II was humanistic in orientation.

Artists, writers, and philosophers of the period became obsessed with the social relevance of art. Although a small group of American artists did attack the societal ills of the nation (housing shortages, unemployment) and of the world in general (the rise of fascism and militarism), most adopted a more pragmatic and even positive attitude. American scene painters captured busy city dwellers on streets, in buses, at work, and at play. Occasionally artists infused an element of humor into the pathos of everyday existence, even in scenes that allude to the political disasters of the day. Regionalists were particularly fond of idealizing the past and aggrandizing the present accomplishments of the country. In fact, the myth of America as a country where everyone lives a pastoral, carefree existence emerged with new vigor in the art of the 1930s.

The diversity of the people also emerged as a strong current of social realism. Artists who were accustomed to working in their studios now looked beyond their immediate circles for models. Individuals of various races, professions, or creeds inspired some of the most moving portraits of the century and demonstrated the soul of the people.

• About the Era.
• Einzig, Barbara, ed. Los Angeles County Museum of Art Report, July 1, 1979-June 30, 1981. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1982.
• Fort, Ilene Susan and Michael Quick.  American Art:  a Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection.  Los Angeles:  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
• LACMA: Obras Maestras 1750-1950: Pintura Estadounidense Del Museo De Arte Del Condado De Los Angeles. Mexico, D.F.: Museo Nacional de Arte, 2006.
• Haskell, Barbara, ed. Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925-1945. New York: Whitney Museum of Art ; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020.