Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s

Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s is a 2023 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The show examines the remarkable outpouring of artistic production in the United States during the 1930s, a decade defined by economic crisis, social upheaval, and fierce political debate.

Drawing on the Met's rich holdings alongside loans, the exhibition explores how American artists responded to the Great Depression, the New Deal, and the rise of mass media. Works span painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture, revealing the ways in which artists sought to reach broad audiences and give voice to the struggles and aspirations of ordinary Americans.

The exhibition takes its title from a landmark 1930s manuscript that called for art to serve the public good — a rallying cry that resonates throughout the works on view. Visitors are invited to consider how the art of this period shaped, and was shaped by, the cultural and political forces of its time.