Dear Joan of Art:


Relief Blues Some years ago, I visited your museum and was intrigued by an artist and painting with which I was unfamiliar. Can you tell me something about an artist named Guglielmi, who painted Relief Blues? The painting stirred up my memories of the Depression.

Dear Visitor:

The painting is included in one of our traveling shows, Scenes of American Life: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, on view at the Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, from January 12 through March 24, 2002.

With meticulous realism, Guglielmi shows a family gathered around a table in a small New York apartment. Beside them a relief worker fills out forms to determine if they qualify for welfare. In their haunted faces Guglielmi portrays the boredom and despair of those left unemployed during the depression.

The following biographical information is from an exhibition pamphlet entitled Guglielmi: Exhibition of Paintings 1931 to 1954 (New York, N.Y.: Downtown Gallery, 1967), published for a 1967 show:

"Born: 1906 in Cairo, Egypt of Italian parents. His father, a musician, brought the family to this country in 1914—after traveling through Europe—and settled in New York. He studied at the National Academy of Design, later worked as an assistant to a mural painter; executed drawings for newspapers and other commercial work. Subsequently he devoted himself entirely to easel painting— and when the Federal Art Project was initiated he was among those included on the WPA.… Guglielmi served in the United States Army Engineer Corps from March 8, 1943 to September 1945. His home and studio were in New York where he continued his career until his death September 1, 1956."

I hope this information is helpful!

Joan of Art

Source: Virginia Mecklenburg. Scenes of American Life: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).

Pictured: O. Louis Guglielmi, 1906 Egypt–1956 USA, Relief Blues, about 1938, tempera on fiberboard, 24 x 29 7/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from Museum of Modern Art.