Prohibition
Artist
Peppino Gino Mangravite
(Italian-American, 1896 - 1978)
Datec. 1920 - 1937
Mediumoil on canvas
DimensionsFramed: 67 × 206 inches (170.2 × 523.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of Kaye and Don Kole.
Object number1998.28
On View
On view
CopyrightThe images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextPeppino Mangravite immigrated to the United States from Italy in 1923. Though most strongly associated with New York, he lived for a while in Washington, D.C. His paintings depict subjects and themes from everyday life in America. Most of his paintings were murals - large images that filled a whole wall. Prohibition was painted under the sponsorship of the Work Projects Administration (WPA), a former U.S. government agency established by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as part of the Federal Works Agency. Headed by Harry Hopkins, one of Roosevelt’s closest advisors, it was designed to employ persons on relief. The Federal Art Project, one of the WPA’s activities, made possible the production of close to 10,000 drawings, paintings, and sculptured works. Many public buildings - especially post offices - were decorated with murals. This mural was originally housed in a post office in Lynne, Massachusetts. This WPA mural follows the rise and fall of the prohibition movement from 1920 to 1933. Prohibition was a legal ban on the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drink. Many key political and religious figures saw alcohol production as the root of social evils in this country such as crime, poverty and violence. The three figural groupings follow the story of prohibition from its early years to its inevitable demise.
At left protagonists for prohibition gather around a large book that reads: “The XVIII Amendment Thou Shall Not.” The eighteenth amendment was signed in 1918 and legally went into effect in 1920. With the signing of this amendment manufacturing, selling, transporting, importing and exporting of intoxicating liquors became illegal. In the background at top left is Cary Nation, a prohibitionist who raided saloons and broke bottles of liquor with a hatchet. She was a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union which protested the use of alcohol. To the right of Ms. Nation is a fellow member carrying a picket sign. The elderly gentleman at top center is John Davison Rockefeller, an American oil-refining industrialist who contributed generously to the Anti-Saloon League. Here he is shown giving a contribution to a Salvation Army officer.
In the central grouping President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is placed amidst drinking and partying figures. Harry Hopkins, one of his closest advisors, stands behind him at left and Roosevelt’s wife, Eleanor stands at right. In 1933 Roosevelt signed the Twenty-First Amendment which repealed prohibition. Resignation and failure are depicted by the grouping at right. In the background to the left of this grouping a bootlegging transaction takes place. At right, figures gather dejectedly around John Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI. He sits at the base of a statue which reads: “Experiment Noble in Purpose.” The Noble Experiment – Prohibition, failed. Another symbol of failure - an illegal barroom scene or speakeasy - takes place in the background at top right and. below this grouping, Ma Barker, the personification of crime, fires a machine gun. Here Mangravite gives his interpretation of a period in early 20th century American history. Taking on the rather daunting task of presenting a complex theme like prohibition he creates a memorial to this movement with humor and pathos.