John Steuart Curry

John Steuart Curry: Inventing the Middle West is the first comprehensive study in more than fifty years of this member of the great triumvirate of American Regionalists: Thomas Hart Benton, Curry, and Grant Wood. It revives the reputation of one of the most important and controversial artists of the first half of the twentieth century, whose paintings of farm life in his native Kansas (including baptisms and tornados), of the circus, of American history, and of the American scene in general were dramatically eclipsed by the ascendancy of abstract art and the New York School at midcentury. 68 colour & 114 b/w illustrations

Much more than a reference book, this is a beautifully reproduced and meticulously researched work about one of Kansas's most famous artist, John Steuart Curry. The book will be appreciated by both young students and all art-lovers.

Artist John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) was raised on a farm in Northeast Kansas and is best known for his depictions of the Midwest. Another region revealed in his art, the American West, has always deserved more attention. Experiences on a family-owned ranch in Arizona nurtured Curry's love of the Western landscape. During the 1920s the artist illustrated serialized magazine stories that took readers on Wild West adventures. In later years he interpreted the history of Westward expansion in murals for federal buildings and classic novels such as James Fenimore Cooper's The Prairie. Through more than forty works, including paintings and magazine illustrations, this exhibition catalogue explores the motives for Curry's fascination with the region and the dialogue between his depictions of a real and imagined American West. Co-curated by independent scholar Frank N. Owings Jr. and Curator Elizabeth G. Seaton of Kansas State University's Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, John Steuart Curry: The Cowboy Within is accompanied by an introduction by William H. Truettner, former Smithsonian American Art Museum curator and editor and author of The West as America: Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, 1820 - 1920.

In 1940, John Steuart Curry painted a scene of Herbert Hoover directing relief efforts after the Mississippi River flood of 1927 as part of a series of paintings depicting modern American history commissioned by Life magazine. In this in-depth case