Mass Produced: The Advent of Affordable Art 

January 17 - March 7, 2026
Grace Adams Tanner Gallery 

Established in 1934, Associated American Artists (AAA), a small gallery and print publisher based in New York City, created a revolutionary business model based on making fine art affordable to the masses. Rather than focusing on painting and sculpture, AAA presented modern print collecting as an accessible alternative, offering artist-signed prints for $5 each directly to middle-class consumers. Aligned with the ethos of the New Deal, during the Great Depression (1929 - 1939) AAA sent lithographic stones to artists such as Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, providing materials for print-making and opportunities for income, while also making their art accessible to everyday Americans.

AAA built a market through mail-order campaigns, department store sales, and local exhibitions, several of which were held as early as 1938 in Cedar City and on the campus of Branch Agricultural College, Southern Utah University’s institutional predecessor. Mass Produced: The Advent of Affordable Art tells the story of the early years of Associated American Artists—their mission and their methods—through the work of 6 artists whose prints sold in the 1930s and 1940s embody the mission of AAA and the spirit of the era.

Image:
Grant Wood (American, 1891-1942), January, 1947, Lithograph on paper, 11 3/4 x 16 in., Southern Utah Museum of Art