Caption Contest

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WINNER:

Jim McKay: Not as clumsy or as random as a pitchfork, the lightsaber is a more elegant weapon, for a more civilized age.

Art Blogging: John Steuart Curry

John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) was an American Regionalist painter and muralist. Along with Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton, Curry led the Regionalist movement. Educated at the Art Institute of Chicago and the atelier of Vasily Shukhayev in Paris, he worked as a commercial illustrator until he became famous on the East Coast for his pictorial reminisces of life in Kansas. His work was highly valued by urban Americans who yearned for a simpler, more organic life in the country.
Baptism in Kansas (1928). This work, acquired by a lady of the Vanderbilt family in 1931, introduced Curry to the upper tiers of the American art scene and made him an instant success. Its depiction of simple people engaging in religious devotion was a great novelty to elites, thus ushering in the Regionalist era.

The Holy Spirit seems to be descending on this baptism in two doves: one white, one black. Now that's something that needs to be unpacked.

John Brown (mural, Kansas State Capitol, 1939). Abolitionist John Brown does not get a favorable depiction by Curry. To Curry, Brown was not a heroic martyr for the end of slavery, but a raving maniac whose violence led to the blood-drenched nightmare of the US Civil War.

Tornado Over Kansas (oil on canvas, Muskegon Museum of Art, 1929). One of Curry's dominant themes was the helplessness of people to savage forces beyond their control, both natural and man-made.

Art Blogging: Grant Wood

Grant Wood (1891-1942) was an American Regionalist painter. Born in Iowa, he attended the Art Institute of Chicago. He served as a US Army camouflage painter during WWI and then travelled through Europe during the 1920s. Although exposed to contemporary Impressionists and Expressionists, it was the Northern Renaissance painters, such as Hans Memling, that left an enduring mark on his style. He founded the Stone City Art Colony in 1932 before settling down to teach at the University of Iowa until his death a few years later.
American Gothic (1930, oil on beaverboard, the Art Institute of Chicago). Instantly famous after its debut, American Gothic depicts a Midwestern farmer and his unmarried daughter in front of their Gothic Revival style cottage -- hence the title. The rigid formality and precise realistic depiction is in direct imitation of Northern Renaissance painting. As an icon of the Regionalist style, this work celebrates the beauty of the American Midwest in both its landscape and culture.


Young Corn (1931, oil on masonite, Cedar Rapids Iowa Community School). Here Wood idealizes Iowa as a peaceable kingdom of order, harmony, and prosperity. Compare.


Hired Girl (1935, gouache on paper, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art). In contrast to contemporary European depictions of women, Wood emphasizes the qualities of work, perseverance, and steadiness.