John Steuart Curry (November 14, 1897 – August 29, 1946) was an American painter whose career spanned the years from 1924 until his death. He was noted for his paintings depicting rural life in his home state,
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
. Along with Thomas Hart Benton and
Grant Wood
Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891 February 12, 1942) was an American painter and representative of Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. He is particularly well known for '' American Gothic'' (193 ...
, he was hailed as one of the three great painters of American Regionalism of the first half of the twentieth century. Curry's artistic production was varied, including paintings, book illustrations, prints, and posters.
Curry was Kansas's best-known painter, but his works were not popular with Kansans, who felt that he did not portray the state positively. Curry's paintings often depicted farm life and animals, tornadoes, prairie fires, and the violent Bleeding Kansas period (featuring abolitionist
John Brown John Brown most often refers to:
*John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859
John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to:
Academia
* John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...
, who at the time was derided as a fanatical
traitor
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
) – subjects that Kansans did not want to be representative of the state. Curry was commissioned to create murals for the
Kansas State Capitol
The Kansas State Capitol, known also as the Kansas Statehouse, is the building housing the executive and legislative branches of government for the U.S. state of Kansas. Located in the city of Topeka, which has served as the capital of Kansas sin ...
, and he completed two: ''Kansas Pastoral'', and his most famous and controversial work, ''
Tragic Prelude
''Tragic Prelude'' is a mural painted by Kansan John Steuart Curry for the Kansas State Capitol building in Topeka, Kansas. It is located on the east side of the second floor rotunda. On the north wall it depicts abolitionist Kansan John Brown w ...
,'' which he considered his greatest. Reaction was so negative that the Kansas Legislature passed a measure to keep them, or future works of his, from being hung on the capitol walls. As a result, Curry did not sign the works, which were not hung during his lifetime. He left Topeka in disgust; his planned eight smaller murals for the Capitol
rotunda on the first floor never went beyond sketches, now held by the Kansas Museum of History.
Curry's works were painted with movement, which was conveyed by the free brush work and energized forms that characterized his style. His control over brushstrokes created excited emotions such as fear and despair in his paintings. His fellow Regionalists, who also painted action and movement, influenced Curry's style.
Biography
Curry was born on a farm in
Dunavant, Kansas
Dunavant is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Kansas, United States.
History
A post office was opened in Dunavant in 1888, and remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1932.
In 1910, Dunavant's popul ...
, November 14, 1897; the house has been moved to
Oskaloosa and there are plans to make a museum of it. He was the eldest of five children to parents Thomas Smith Curry and Margaret Steuart Curry. Despite living on a Midwestern farm, both of Curry's parents were college educated and had even visited Europe for their honeymoon. Curry's early life consisted of caring for the animals on the farm, attending the nearby high school and excelling in athletics. His childhood home was filled with many reproductions of
Peter Paul Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...
and
Gustave Doré
Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré ( , , ; 6 January 1832 – 23 January 1883) was a French artist, as a printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engraving ...
, and these artists' styles played a significant role in crafting Curry's own style.
His family was very religious, as were most people in Dunavant. Curry was encouraged to paint animals around the farm, and at the age of twelve he had his first art lesson. In 1916 he entered the
Kansas City Art Institute
The Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) is a private art school in Kansas City, Missouri. The college was founded in 1885 and is an accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and Higher Learning Commission. It has approxi ...
, but after only a month there he transferred to the
Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
, where he stayed for two years. In 1918 he attended
Geneva College
Geneva College is a private Christian college in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1848, in Northwood, Ohio, the college moved to its present location in 1880, where it continues to educate a student body of about 1400 traditional undergra ...
in
Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania
Beaver Falls is a city in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 9,005 at the 2020 census. Located 31 miles (50 km) northwest of Pittsburgh, the city lies along the Beaver River, six miles (9 km) north of its co ...
. After he graduated, Curry worked as an illustrator from 1921 to 1926. He worked for several magazines, including ''
Boys' Life
''Scout Life'' (formerly ''Boys' Life'') is the monthly magazine of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Its target readers are boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 18. The magazine‘s headquarters are in Irving, Texas.
''Scout Life'' is pu ...
'', ''
St. Nicholas Magazine'', ''
The Country Gentleman
''The Country Gentleman'' (1852–1955) was an American agricultural magazine founded in 1852 in Albany, New York, by Luther Tucker.Frank Luther Mott (1938A History of American Magazines 1850–1865"The Country Gentleman", page 432, Harvard Unive ...
'', and ''
The Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...
''.
In 1926, Curry spent a year in Paris studying the works of
Gustave Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...
and
Honoré Daumier
Honoré-Victorin Daumier (; February 26, 1808February 10, 1879) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the Revolution of 1830 to the fall of the second N ...
, as well as the color techniques of
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
and
Rubens. After his return to the United States he settled in New York City and married Clara Derrick; shortly thereafter, they moved to an artists' colony in
Westport, Connecticut
Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, along the Long Island Sound within Connecticut's Gold Coast. It is northeast of New York City. The town had a population of 27,141 according to the 2020 U.S. Census.
History
...
. Clara died in June 1932 and for the next two years Curry devoted his time to working in his studio. He traveled briefly with the
Ringling Brothers Circus
Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows is a circus founded in Baraboo, Wisconsin, United States in 1884 by five of the seven Ringling brothers: Albert, August, Otto, Alfred T., Charles, John, and Henry. The Ringling brothers were sons of a Ge ...
and during his time with them created his painting ''The Flying Cadonas''. He remarried in 1934 to Kathleen Gould.
In 1936, Curry was appointed as the first
artist-in-residence
Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...
at the College of Agriculture of the
University of Wisconsin
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
, which built him a small studio. He had no classes to teach nor any specific duties; he was free to travel throughout the state and promote art in farming communities by providing personal instruction to students. As seen later, the experience turned Curry into a
conservationist, especially concerned with Kansas's man-made ecological disaster, the
plowing
A plough or plow (Differences between American and British spellings, US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are draw ...
that produced horrible erosion in Kansas, along with
dust bowl
The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of both natural factors (severe drought) an ...
storms.
The same year he was commissioned to paint a mural for the
Department of Justice Building
The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building is the headquarters of the United States Department of Justice.
The building is located at 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, on a trapezoidal lot on the block bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue to the ...
and
Main Interior Building
The Main Interior Building, officially known as the Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building, located in Washington, D.C., is the headquarters of the United States Department of the Interior.
Located in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood ...
in
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
. In 1937 he was elected into the
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...
as an Associate Member, and became a full Academician in 1943. This was followed with what might have been the crown of his career, a commission to paint murals on Kansas topics for the
Kansas State Capitol
The Kansas State Capitol, known also as the Kansas Statehouse, is the building housing the executive and legislative branches of government for the U.S. state of Kansas. Located in the city of Topeka, which has served as the capital of Kansas sin ...
at
Topeka
Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central Un ...
, on which abortive project see below.
Curry continued to work at the University of Wisconsin until he died of a heart attack in Madison in 1946, at the age of 48.
Curry and regionalistic art
Curry was one of the three great painters of
American regionalistic art; the others were
Thomas Hart Benton and
Grant Wood
Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891 February 12, 1942) was an American painter and representative of Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. He is particularly well known for '' American Gothic'' (193 ...
. All three were from the
Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
, west of the
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
: Wood from
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
, Benton from
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
, and Curry from
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
. Their art presents a nostalgic look at rural life in the American heartland. Regionalism was essentially a revolt against at least one major evil of the
industrial revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
: centralization.
Centralization of manufacturing permitted mass production, with efficient factories and assembly-line production. This reduced the cost of manufactured goods, but at the expense of regional or local variety and initiative. The
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
and the subsequent
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
demonstrated the limitations and failures of
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
. Rugged depictions of regional, independent life in wide-open spaces provided an alternative. As put by
Meyer Schapiro
Meyer Schapiro (23 September 1904 – 3 March 1996) was a Lithuanian-born American art historian known for developing new art historical methodologies that incorporated an interdisciplinary approach to the study of works of art. An expert on earl ...
, "Regionalism obscured the crucial forces of history, as defined by
Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 p ...
, and provided entertaining distractions from the realities facing oppressed people."
In contrast with Wood, who lived in Iowa, and Benton in Missouri, Curry did not live in Kansas as an adult. As seen by Curry, nostalgia for rural Kansan life ignored its shortcomings: tornados, prairie fires, dust storms, plagues of insects, and life-threatening floods. The depiction of the same in his paintings had as consequence the reservations some Kansans felt about seeing him, without qualification, as Kansas's great painter. In fact, as he well knew, his works did not sell in Kansas.
The University of Wisconsin hired him in 1936 as artist-in-residence, something no Kansas university would do. At Wisconsin, based in the College of Agriculture, Curry became a conservationist. What some Kansans found particularly offensive was his stated plan to portray the tragedy of soil erosion in one of his planned murals for the
Kansas Capitol
The Kansas State Capitol, known also as the Kansas Statehouse, is the building housing the Governor of Kansas, executive and Kansas Legislature, legislative branches of government for the U.S. state of Kansas. Located in the city of Topeka, which ...
, providing a "significant warning" to Kansas farmers that they had brought on an ecological disaster. He was surprised when these plans met with local resentment.
Curry and Wisconsin
![Freeing of the Slaves - Curry](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Freeing_of_the_Slaves_-_Curry.jpg)
Curry was thought of in his day as the great Kansas painter,
and it was no secret that he wanted to paint murals for Kansas; he confirmed this to a reporter.
[ However, his relationship with Kansas was complicated. He lived in Connecticut and declined repeated suggestions that he move back to his home state; instead, he moved to Wisconsin when its University offered him in 1936 what no Kansas institution would: a position as artist-in-residence. He remained there until his death in 1946.] While at Wisconsin he completed in 1942 a by mural on the Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the Civil War. The Proclamation changed the legal sta ...
, titled ''Freeing of the Slaves''. It was originally intended, in 1936, for the new U.S. Department of Justice Building, but sketches were rejected by federal officials, who told Curry that they feared that “serious difficulties...might arise as a result of the racial implications of the subject matter.” Curry painted two other murals in that building, ''Movement of the Population Westward'' and ''Law versus Mob Rule''. However, the design caught the attention of Wisconsin Law School dean Lloyd K. Garrison
Lloyd Kirkham Garrison (November 19, 1897 – October 2, 1991) was an American lawyer. He was Dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School, but also served as chairman of the "first" National Labor Board, National Labor Relations Board, chairman ...
, great-grandson of the famous abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
Wm. Lloyd Garrison, who had it installed in the Reading Room of the new Law School library.
Curry and Kansas
In his many Kansas-themed works, he wanted to present a "personal view" of Kansas history. "I want to picture what I feel about my native state."[ In preparation for the crowning project of his career, the ]Kansas Capitol
The Kansas State Capitol, known also as the Kansas Statehouse, is the building housing the Governor of Kansas, executive and Kansas Legislature, legislative branches of government for the U.S. state of Kansas. Located in the city of Topeka, which ...
murals, he spent several days in the Kansas Historical Society
The Kansas Historical Society is the official state historical society of Kansas.
Headquartered in Topeka, it operates as "the trustee of the state" for the purpose of maintaining the state's history and operates the Kansas Museum of History, Kan ...
and the Topeka Public Library studying Kansas history.[ As he put it, he wanted to "wreak good" upon Kansas.][
Curry painted Kansas as he saw it, warts and all. His planned pieces for the first-floor rotunda of the Kansas Capitol, which never got beyond preliminary sketches, included one on conservation and erosion. Curry expressed the view of the professors in the College of Agriculture, that Kansas farmers' poor ]soil management
Soil management is the application of operations, practices, and treatments to protect soil and enhance its performance (such as soil fertility or soil mechanics). It includes soil conservation, soil amendment, and optimal soil health. In agricult ...
caused the erosion and dust storms of 1930s Kansas.
This displeased many Kansans, who did not want soil erosion, or the alleged errors of Kansas farmers, in their Capitol. Furthermore, John Brown was a convicted traitor, and in the opinion of many, a kook. The opposition grew so bitter that Curry abandoned his great Kansas Capitol project in disgust. He refused to sign the two works completed or allow them to be hung, as he said they were intended to be seen as part of a group. They were hung in the Capitol after his death.
''Baptism in Kansas''
In August 1928, Curry painted ''Baptism in Kansas
''Baptism in Kansas'' is a 1928 painting by the American painter John Steuart Curry. It depicts a full-submersion baptism in a water tank. In the sky are a raven and a dove, a reference to the birds Noah released from the Ark. The painting is bas ...
'', which was exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery
The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University.
Overview
The Corcoran School of the Arts & Desi ...
in Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, and met with almost instant success.[ The painting was praised in the '']New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' and earned Curry the attention of Mrs. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (January 9, 1875 – April 18, 1942) was an American sculptor, art patron and collector, and founder in 1931 of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. She was a prominent social figure and hostess, ...
. In 1931 Mrs. Vanderbilt Whitney purchased the painting for the Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...
in New York City, thus establishing him as a major artist.
''Baptism in Kansas'' reflected the religious sects that held open-air baptisms. These popular religious groups were part of the scene of rural life that Curry saw in Kansas. He presents the scene with reverence.
No well-known Baptismal representations by old world masters employ the unique compositional layout that Curry favors. Curry's painting was a shock to Easterners who would have never associated a baptism with full immersion or with a barnyard setting, but Curry painted what he was familiar with, as Lawrence Shmeckebrier said he "saw this scene as conceived and executed with sincere reverence and understanding of one who had lived it."[Dennis, James M. ''Renegade Regionalists: The Modern Independence of Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and John Steuart Curry''. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.] Curry's religious painting is therefore an observance rather than a satire on religious fundamentalism.
''Tornado over Kansas''
Under Mrs. Whitney's patronage Curry painted '' Tornado over Kansas'', which depicts a farmer facing an approaching tornado while he and his wife help the family and animals into the tornado shelter. The painting was unveiled in 1929 just before the Wall Street Crash
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
in October and provided those in the city with the romance of man versus nature themes. Typical of Curry's work of the 1930s, he depicted scenes of labor, family, and land, in order to demonstrate peace, struggle, and perseverance that he had come to believe was the essence of American life, the spirit of Kansas.
''Kansas Pastoral''
''Kansas Pastoral'' is the first of two murals completed for the Kansas Capitol
The Kansas State Capitol, known also as the Kansas Statehouse, is the building housing the Governor of Kansas, executive and Kansas Legislature, legislative branches of government for the U.S. state of Kansas. Located in the city of Topeka, which ...
. It presents a fictional agrarian utopia. The farmer is at leisure; the farm, its crops, and its animals are marvels of order, and seem to run themselves. The manual labor of the farm woman is no longer needed, and she can devote herself to the home.[
]
''Tragic Prelude''
''Tragic Prelude'' presents a visual history of Kansas: the first Europeans, Juan de Padilla
Juan de Padilla, OFM (1500–1542) was a Spanish Catholic priest and missionary who spent much of his life exploring North America with Francisco Vásquez de Coronado. He was killed in what would become Kansas by Native Americans in 1542.
...
and Coronado Coronado may refer to:
People
* Coronado (surname)
* Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (1510–1554), Spanish explorer often referred to simply as "Coronado"
* Coronado Chávez (1807–1881), President of Honduras from 1845 to 1847
Places United ...
, followed by a plainsman hunting buffalos, and finally the Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the ...
period of 1854–1861. During this period, when Kansas was the focus of national attention like no time before or since, "old" John Brown, believing he was doing the Lord's work, and well-armed, led anti-slavery settlers in resisting, with violence if unfortunately necessary, the attempts to make Kansas a slave state
In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were not. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave states ...
. Kansas' status was not resolved until the beginning of the Civil War, when six slave states had seceded, and it could come into the Union as a free state.
Brown's role during the Bleeding Kansas period—he was also an Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...
conductor—was not widely remembered outside of Kansas. However, his name was familiar to anyone who had had a course in American history, as he was widely believed to have helped cause the Civil War, and on purpose, with his raid on the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia
Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, Jefferson County, West Virginia. It is located in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The population was 285 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Situated at the confluence o ...
(since 1863, West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...
). He was quickly convicted of treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
against the state of Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, murder, and fomenting a slave insurrection, and hung. "John Brown's Body
"John Brown's Body" (originally known as "John Brown's Song") is a United States marching song about the abolitionist John Brown. The song was popular in the Union during the American Civil War. The tune arose out of the folk hymn tradition o ...
" was the marching song of Union soldiers.
''Tragic Prelude'' puts Brown in front of the troops killing each other. In the background, approaching tornado and prairie fires suggest the calamity, the Civil War, that was fast approaching, and that Brown seemed to be calling for.
The painting produced a negative reaction in advance of its being hung. (It was not hung until after Curry's death.) John Brown, convicted of treason against the state of Virginia, was not someone most Kansans felt proud of, nor was the Bleeding Kansas period as a whole. Adding to public consternation was Curry's plan to portray ruinous soil erosion, in Kansas a very controversial and political topic, in another mural. The Legislature could not fire Curry since he was being paid out of funds newspaper editors raised from the public. However, they withdrew permission for Curry's works to be hung in the Capitol.
This was devastating to Curry. He left Kansas in disgust and refused to sign the two murals he did complete, saying that they could not be understood in isolation.
Political art
Curry's art, in general, was conservative in political content. He believed that art was for the common person. He did not believe in political propaganda, particularly the Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
kind that Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...
popularized in the 1930s. Curry avoided exploiting the controversial subjects in which Rivera became involved because he did not believe they added any artistic quality to his work. However, Curry did create a few political sketches or studies, but these were never expanded on for larger projects. Rather, he enjoyed observing public events and capturing them on paper.
Curry's few semi-political paintings evolved out of his personal experiences rather than created as a display of social commentary. ''The Return of Private Davis,'' completed in 1940, was first witnessed near his home in 1918, and a similar study was made in France during 1926. Schmeckebier relates this painting to the ceremony of baptism: "a rural religious ceremony whose tragedy is intensified by the realization that this son of the fresh green Kansas prairies was sacrificed on a battlefield whose ideological remoteness was as dramatic as its geographical makeup."[Schmeckebier, Laurence E. ''John Steuart Curry's Pageant of America''. New York: American Artists Group Inc., 1943.] The painting does not express a political spectacle, rather Curry's personal feelings. Conversely, ''Parade to War'' depicts departing soldiers rather than the return of a victim of war.
Along with war scenes, Curry also produced manhunt and fugitive subjects. These ideas were inspired by remembrances from his own childhood, but were also observed from publicized events during the early 1930s. The Lindbergh kidnapping
On March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. (born June 22, 1930), the 20-month-old son of aviators Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was abducted from his crib in the upper floor of the Lindberghs' home, Highfields (Amwell and Ho ...
and John Dillinger
John Herbert Dillinger (June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934) was an American gangster during the Great Depression. He led the Dillinger Gang, which was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations. Dillinger was imprisoned several times and ...
's crime spree were well known and public deaths such as lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...
s were often the result of such crimes. In addition, the plight of black male victims of lynching became a focus of attention. Curry's painting, ''The Fugitive,'' showing a black man hiding from a mob, appeared in a 1935 exhibition, "An Art Commentary on Lynching," organized in support of national anti-lynching legislation (which never passed, then or later). These earlier political works would influence later Curry's mural work in the Department of Justice Building. Located "above the entrance to the Justice Department library" is Curry's painting, ''Law vs. Mob Rule'' in which a judge in black robes protects a man who has collapsed on the courthouse steps from a lynch mob.
Reactions and legacy
Despite popularity in the rest of the country, Curry's works did not find favor in Kansas. He was taken as ridiculing the worst aspects of the state. Kansans felt the inclusion of outdoor baptisms and tornadoes perpetuated negative stereotypes about the state.[ When these paintings were displayed in New York galleries many Kansans felt belittled. However, the New York public was fascinated by Curry's paintings. Curry's paintings were entertaining and easy to grasp, and allowed viewers to see a more primitive, isolated, non-commercial version of America.][
In 1992, the Kansas Legislature apologized for its treatment of Curry and purchased the drawings related to his murals.]
List of art works
''This is a list of some of Curry's most notable works, arranged by date.
*''Baptism in Kansas
''Baptism in Kansas'' is a 1928 painting by the American painter John Steuart Curry. It depicts a full-submersion baptism in a water tank. In the sky are a raven and a dove, a reference to the birds Noah released from the Ark. The painting is bas ...
'', oil on canvas, 1928, Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...
, New York City.
*''The Old Folks'' (Mother and Father), oil on canvas, 1929, Cincinnati Art Museum
The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ov ...
, Cincinnati, OH.
*''The Roadworkers Camp'', oil on canvas, 1929, F.M. Hall Collection, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
*''Storm Over Lake Otsego'', oil on canvas, 1929, collection of Mrs. Polly Thayer Starr, Boston, Massachusetts.
*'' Tornado over Kansas'', oil on canvas, 1929, Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, Michigan
Muskegon ( ') is a city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Muskegon County. Muskegon is known for fishing, sailing regattas, pleasure boating, and as a commercial and cruise ship port. It is a popular vacation destination because of the expa ...
.
*''Hogs Killing a Snake'', oil on canvas, c.1930, Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
.
*''The Medicine Man'', oil on canvas, 1931, collection of William Benton, Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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.
*''Spring Shower'', oil on canvas, 1931, Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, New York City.
*''The Flying Cadonas'', oil and tempera on panel, 1932, Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...
, New York City.
*''The Runaway'', oil on canvas, 1932, collection of Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...
, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
*''The Line Storm'', oil and tempera on panel, 1934, collection of Sidney Howard, New York.
*''Corn'', oil on canvas, 1935, Wichita Art Museum
The Wichita Art Museum is an art museum located in Wichita, Kansas, United States.
The museum was established in 1915, when Louise Caldwell Murdock’s Will which created a trust to start the Roland P. Murdock Collection of art in memory of her ...
, Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...
.
*''Ajax
Ajax may refer to:
Greek mythology and tragedy
* Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea
* Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris
* ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...
'', oil on canvas, 1936–37, Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...
, Washington, D.C.
*''The Oklahoma Land Rush, April 22, 1889'', commissioned 1937, installed 1939
*''Tragic Prelude
''Tragic Prelude'' is a mural painted by Kansan John Steuart Curry for the Kansas State Capitol building in Topeka, Kansas. It is located on the east side of the second floor rotunda. On the north wall it depicts abolitionist Kansan John Brown w ...
'', 1937–1942, Kansas State Capitol
The Kansas State Capitol, known also as the Kansas Statehouse, is the building housing the executive and legislative branches of government for the U.S. state of Kansas. Located in the city of Topeka, which has served as the capital of Kansas sin ...
*''Madison Landscape'', oil and tempera on canvas, 1941, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA), formerly known as the Madison Art Center, is an independent, non-profit art museum located in downtown Madison, Wisconsin.
MMoCA is dedicated to exhibiting, collecting, and preserving modern and co ...
, Madison, WI
Exhibitions
*"A Celebration of Rural America," September 9, – October 28, 2007, Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History, Danville, Virginia.
*"Collective Images: the sketchbooks of John Steuart Curry," February 23, – May 5, 2002, Worcester Art Museum
The Worcester Art Museum, also known by its acronym WAM, houses over 38,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day and representing cultures from all over the world. WAM opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and ranks among th ...
, Worcester, Massachusetts.
*"Illusions of Eden: Visions of the American Heartland," February 18, – April 30, 2000, Columbus Museum of Art
The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formed in 1878 as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (its name until 1978), it was the first art museum to register its charter with the state of Ohio. The museum collect ...
, Columbus, Ohio.
*"The American Century: Art & Culture 1900–2000," April 23, 1999, Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...
, New York, New York.
*"John Steuart Curry: Inventing the Middle West," June 13, – August 30, 1998, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum
( ; ; pl. ; ; 1512, from Middle French , literally "my lord") is an honorific title that was used to refer to or address the eldest living brother of the king in the French royal court. It has now become the customary French title of resp ...
, San Francisco, California.
Archival material
The Kansas Historical Society
The Kansas Historical Society is the official state historical society of Kansas.
Headquartered in Topeka, it operates as "the trustee of the state" for the purpose of maintaining the state's history and operates the Kansas Museum of History, Kan ...
has Curry's preliminary sketches for the State Capitol murals.
References
Further reading
*''John Steuart Curry: Rural America'', edited by Mongerson Wunderlich. Chicago: ACA Galleries, 1991.
*''John Steuart Curry: A Catalogue of Reason'', edited by Sylvan Cole Jr. New York: Basso Printing Corporation, 1976.
*Czestochowski, Joseph S. ''John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood: A Portrait of Rural America''. Columbia: University of Missouri Press and Cedar Rapids Art Association, 1981.
*Dennis, James M. ''Renegade Regionalists: The Modern Independence of Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, ''and John Steuart Curry''. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.
*Junker, Patricia. ''John Steuart Curry: Inventing the Middle West''. Arizona: Traditional Fine Arts Organization Inc., 2005.
*Kendall, M. Sue. ''Rethinking Regionalism: John Steuart Curry and the Kansas Mural Controversy''. ''Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institutian Press, 1986.''
*
*Mayer, Lance and Gay Myers. "Old Master Recipes in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s: Curry, Marsh, Doerner, and Maroger." Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 41, no. 1 (Spring, 2002): 21–42.
*Schmeckebier, Laurence. "John Steuart Curry" Obituaries, College Art Journal. College Art Association v.6.1 (1946): 59–60.
*Schmeckebier, Lawrence E. ''John Steuart Curry's Pageant of America''. American Artists Group Inc., 1943.
*KSHS
Curry's Statehouse Studies
Kansas State Historical Society.
*PBS.
PBS.
External links
*
John Steuart Curry and Curry family papers, 1848-1999
from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art
The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...
John Steuart Curry / Baptism in Kansas / 1928
at www.davidrumsey.com, The AMICA Library- John Steuart Curry
Muskegon (Michigan, USA) Museum of Art
housing ''Tornado over Kansas'' (1929)
John Curry Artwork Examples on AskART.
Don Anderson papers relating to John Steuart Curry, 1942–1973
from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art
The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curry, John Steuart
1897 births
1946 deaths
People from Jefferson County, Kansas
Painters from Kansas
American muralists
20th-century American painters
American male painters
Art Students League of New York faculty
Geneva College alumni
Kansas City Art Institute alumni
United States Army artists
Federal Art Project artists
University of Wisconsin–Madison staff
People from Westport, Connecticut
School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni
20th-century American male artists
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters