#abstract image

Abstact. Sand.

Milwaukee Handicraft Monday

Most of the prints in our Milwaukee Handicraft Project Collection are figurative in some way, even if those figures are abstracted. However, about a third of the collection consists of images that are entirely abstract, often printed repeatedly on a single surface to create an overall pattern, such as this series of block prints on fabric. 

This image is from our digital collection “Wisconsin Arts Projects of the WPA,” digitized from the original in “Surface Patterns,″ volume 3 of Applied Design; Blockprinted Textiles. An Educational Service Prepared by the Milwaukee WPA Handicraft Project.

View our other Milwaukee Handicraft Project posts.

The MHP was founded in 1935 by Harriet Clinton, head of the Women’s Division of Wisconsin’s WPA to help unskilled women laborers provide income for their families. Clinton hired Elsa Ulbricht, an art professor at the Milwaukee State Teacher’s College (one of UWM’s predecessor institutions), to direct the project. The MHP hired around 5,000 people in total throughout its highly successful seven-year existence. 

“Untitled”