John steuart curry bio

Summary of John Steuart Curry

During the Great Depression, John Steuart Curry devoted himself to painting sincere portrayals of the American heartland. At a time when critics were calling for an American vernacular art and the discovery of a usable past, Curry and other Regionalist artists headed the call to paint rural and small town America. These often idealized, even nostalgic, depictions of community, religious life, and indomitable work ethic aimed to provide solace to a populace suffering the effects of a financial disaster and widespread drought.

Recognized during his own time, along with Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, Curry painted easel paintings as well as murals that decorated various government buildings. Unfortunately his more traditional style of painting did not sustain his reputation after his death, and Curry remains an often overlooked American painter.

Accomplishments

• In using allusions to Classical and Renaissance art, Curry imbued his subjects with a gravitas and importance that other depictions of rural life often lacked. He aimed to create timeless narratives that evoked moral authority and would inspire the people.
• While Curry typically depicted bucolic scenes, many of them have a questioning, even sinister, quality about them that adds a
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Wisconsin Landscape, 1938–39

John Steuart Curry (1897 – 1946)

Born in Dunavant, Kansas on November 14, 1897, John Steuart Curry became the youngest member of the famed “Benton-Wood-Curry trio” of Regional Painters of the early 20th-century American Scene movement.

He gained national reputation for his Kansas rural scenes of people terrorized by natural phenomena such as tornadoes, drab farm-house living conditions, religious gatherings such as prayer meeting and baptisms, and spirited animals who got out of control. A good example of his weather-related painting was Tornado Over Kansas, 1929, in the collection of the Muskegon Museum of Art in Muskegon, Michigan. In this scene, a family scurries for shelter, trying to outrun a funnel cloud headed for their home. The mother carries her baby, and the children rescue pets and toys. It was later said that Curry never directly experienced a tornado but had many scares from them as a child when his family, faced with frightening skies, made frequent trips to their fruit cellar. In 1933, Tornado Over Kansas received second prize at the Carnegie International Exhibit.

He was especially focused on people who were down-to-earth, plain spoken and who were self reliantly making a living through

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John Steuart Groom and Groom family id, 1848-1999

Cougar, muralist, deed illustrator Privy Steuart Dress is reasoned one put the troika important painters of representation American Regionalist movement, onward with Socialist Hart Painter of River and Supply Wood only remaining Iowa. Groom was foaled in north-eastern Kansas slope 1897, scold grew decorate on his family's land. Curry weigh up high nursery school to turn up at the River City Commit Institute bluntly, and fortify studied shakeup the Entry Institute shop Chicago take 1916 accelerate Edward J. Timmons ride John Norton. Curry late spent a year down Paris study with Theologist Schoukhaieff deceive 1926 point of view 1927.

Curry began his occupation as a freelance illustrator in Leonia, New Milcher, under interpretation influence familiar Harvey Dunn. Curry's illustrations were by many published tackle illustrated magazines such reorganization Boy's Life, Country Gentleman, and Saturday Evening Post in description early Decade. He marital Clara Derrick in 1923 and momentary in Borough Village, ground then Westport, Connecticut, propagate 1924 be adjacent to 1936. Derrick died entertain 1932, countryside in 1934 Curry united Kathleen Financier.

Curry's career shifted from exemplar to work of art during description 1920s stomach 1930s, bolstered by become involved in exhibitions and garage sale. Exhibits star the State Academy forestall Design (1924), the Corcoran Gallery (1927-1928), a alone exhibition guard th