John Lonergan

PROVENANCE: Gift of Artist and by descent to estate of Betty Preston

Two men walking huddled along a path fenced on one side and lined with houses on
the other, to a harbor with ominous sky. It is a black and white lithograph probably from
the 40’s or 50’s.

John Lonergan was an American artist, educator, and writer. His art often depicted the sea and the
men who worked it, done in various mediums. These include gouache, drawing in charcoal and ink,
lithography and screen printing. From 1939 to 1942 Lonergan was a supervisor of the easel division
of the Federal Arts Project in New York.
Like many artists in the 1930s, Lonergan was active on the political Left. He exhibited with
the International Workers Order and was a founder of the American Artists Congress in 1937. The
Congress avowed: "We artists must act. Individually we are powerless. Through collective action we
can defend our interests. We must ally ourselves with all groups engaged in the common struggle
against war and fascism." Along with Lonergan, notable artists such as Alexander Calder, Stuart
Davis, and Isami Noguchi signed its founding document. Lonergan's work was published in New
Masses and  Direction, prominent left-wing journals of the 1930s and 1940s.
In 1942 he took part in the National War Poster Competition. The competition was part of the United
States' effort to raise support for the war against the Axis Powers. Of the thousands of posters
submitted, Lonergan's was one of two hundred chosen for an exhibition at the Museum of Modern
Art from November 1942 to January 1943. His work is to be found in important museum collections
such as the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Butler
Art Institute.