Works from the Muscatine Art Center Permanent Collection (original) (raw)

Muscatine Art Center

Muscatine, IA

319-263-8282

The Regionlists: Works from the Muscatine Art Center Permanent Collection

September 19 to October 10, 1999

This exhibition of 50 original prints, paintings and drawings from the Art Center's permanent collection by Thomas Hart Benton,John Steuart Curry, Grant Wood, William Bunn and John Bloom (both students of Grant Wood's), encompass a spirited and important period of 20th century art.

Left to right: Grant Wood, July 15th, 1939, Collection of Muscatine Art Center, 1984.33; Grant Wood, Tame Flowers, c. 1938, Collection of Muscatine Art Center, 1969.4; Grant Wood, Midnight Alarm, 1939, Collection of Muscatine Art Center, 1984.27; William, Bunn, View of Mississippi from Wyoming Hill, Collection of Muscatine Art Center, 1971.24; Thomas Hart Benton, Riverboat, c. 1935, pen, pencil, sepia, Collection of Muscatine Art Center, 1992.77.

As the Depression of the 1930s sharply turned the attention of the country away from Europe and back to its own problems, the American qualities of self-reliance, hard work and raw vitality were once again recognized as important virtues to great numbers of Americans.

In 1934, Time magazine grouped Curry with contemporaries Grant Wood of Iowa and Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri as "The Big Three" in American art. The trio led the Regionalist movement in the 1930s, which was characterized by archetypal American images painted in a straightforward, narrative style.

Read more about the Muscatine Art Center in Resource Library Magazine

For further biographical information on selected artists cited in this article please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.

rev. 10/26/10

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