AKU-2012-009

After the WPA Federal Art Project, American

The Studio, Burbank, February 1941

1941

Tempera and oil on canvas, after New Deal mural tradition

155 × 240 cm

Acquisition

Purchased, 2012

Curator’s Note

On February 10, 1941, Walt Disney met with his animators and told them there would be no profit-sharing from Snow White, as had been promised. Disney had earned $8 million from the film. The animators unionized. Disney spent $64,000 in personal funds to hire private investigators to identify union organizers. He appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 and named former employees as Communist sympathizers. This painting, executed in the manner of the WPA Federal Art Project murals that Disney himself had benefited from as a young artist, depicts the Burbank studio in the month of the strike. Disney is not shown.

Exhibition

gilded-age-digital-age