Curry, John Steuart, 1897-1946

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John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) was a painter, lithographer, and instructor.

Curry worked as WPA muralist and is famous as one of The Regionalists, along with Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood. He taught at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1936-1946.

From the description of John Steuart Curry and Curry family papers, 1848-1999. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 233006998

Painter, lithographer, instructor.

Born in Kansas; worked as WPA muralist. Curry is famous as one of The Regionalists, along with Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood. Taught University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1936-

From the description of John Steuart Curry and Curry family papers, 1897-1994. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 220175371

Painter, muralist, and illustrator John Steuart Curry is considered one of the three important painters of the American Regionalist movement, along with Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri and Grant Wood of Iowa. Curry was born in north-eastern Kansas in 1897, and grew up on his family's farm. Curry left high school to attend the Kansas City Art Institute briefly, and then studied at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1916 with Edward J. Timmons and John Norton. Curry later spent a year in Paris studying with Basil Schoukhaieff in 1926 and 1927.

Curry began his career as a freelance illustrator in Leonia, New Jersey, under the influence of Harvey Dunn. Curry's illustrations were widely published in illustrated magazines such as Boy's Life, Country Gentleman, and Saturday Evening Post in the early 1920s. He married Clara Derrick in 1923 and lived in Greenwich Village, and then Westport, Connecticut, from 1924 to 1936. Derrick died in 1932, and in 1934 Curry married Kathleen Gould.

Curry's career shifted from illustration to painting during the 1920s and 1930s, bolstered by success in exhibitions and sales. Exhibits included the National Academy of Design (1924), the Corcoran Gallery (1927-1928), a solo exhibition at the Whitney Studio Club (1930), and the Carnegie International Exhibition (1933). Early sales include Baptism in Kansas, purchased by the Whitney in 1930, and Spring Shower, purchased by the Metropolitan Museum in 1932. Curry taught at Cooper Union (1932-1934) and the Art Student's League (1932-1934), and painted his first murals in Westport under the Federal Art Project in 1934.

In 1936, he was appointed artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture as part of a rural art program developed by rural sociologist John Burton. The purpose of his residency was to serve as an educational resource for rural people of the state. Curry stayed in this position until his death in 1946, carrying out the program's mission through lectures and visits with dozens of art and civic groups around the state, and by making himself available to rural artists through correspondence and guidance in his studio. He also helped to organize annual rural art exhibitions for UW's Farm and Home Week beginning in 1940. In return for his work, he was given a salary and a studio on campus and the freedom to execute his own work as he chose.

Under the Federal Art Program's Section of Painting and Sculpture, Curry completed two murals in the Justice Department building in Washington in 1936, Westward Migration and Justice Defeating Mob Violence, and two murals in the Department of the Interior building in 1938, The Homestead and The Oklahoma Land Rush . A design that was rejected by the government for the Justice building, a mural entitled Freeing of the Slaves, was later executed at the University of Wisconsin in their law library. From 1938 to 1940, Curry worked on murals for the state house rotunda in Topeka, Kansas admist a stormy, public controversy over his dramatic depiction of Kansas history. The legislature effectively blocked Curry's completion of the project through a formal resolution not to remove marble that was blocking areas that were part of Curry's design. Infuriated, Curry left the unfinished murals unsigned, and later derided the state frequently for the treatment he received. The Kansas State legislature issued a formal apology and appreciation of the completed murals in the 1990s.

Despite the lack of appreciation of his home state, Curry did receive recognition elsewhere during his lifetime as an artist of national importance. He continued to paint and exhibit in the art centers of the East Coast. In 1941, he won the Gold Medal Award at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts exhibition, and in the 1942 Artists For Victory exhibition, he won the top prize for Wisconsin Landscape . Curry's book illustrations were in high demand, and he contributed to books such as My Friend Flicka, editions of Lincoln's and Emerson's writings, and Wisconsin writer August Derleth's The Wisconsin . A biography of Curry written by Laurence Schmeckebier was published in 1942.

Curry died in 1946 of heart failure. A retrospective that had been planned for the living artist opened less than a month after his death at the Milwaukee Art Institute. His wife, Kathleen Curry, maintained his estate until her death, in 2001, at the age of 102. Additional retrospective exhibitions were held at Syracuse University in 1956 and in the Kansas State Capitol in 1970. In 1998, the exhibition "John Steuart Curry: Inventing the Middle West" was organized at the University of Wisconsin and traveled to the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum and the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art.

From the guide to the John Steuart Curry and Curry family papers, 1848-1999, (Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution)

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
creatorOf Curry, John Steuart, 1897-1946. Artist file. Brooklyn Museum Libraries & Archives
creatorOf American Artists Group records Archives of American Art
creatorOf Curry, John Steuart, 1897-1946. John Steuart Curry : artist file : study photographs and reproductions of works of art with accompanying documentation 1930?-1990 [graphic] [compiled by staff of The Museum of Modern Art, New York]. Frick Art Reference Library of The Frick Collection
referencedIn Curry, John Steuart, 1897-1946 : [miscellaneous ephemeral material]. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas J. Watson Library
creatorOf Murphy, Frank, 1890-1949. Frank Murphy autograph book, 1930-1942. Bentley Historical Library
referencedIn John Rector Barton papers Archives of American Art
referencedIn Charles Culver papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Curry, John Steuart, 1897-1946. Clippings about John Steuart Curry, 1935-1947. University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Van Pelt Library
creatorOf Daniel Putnam Brinley and Kathrine Sanger Brinley papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf William Ashby McCloy papers Archives of American Art
referencedIn Whitney Museum of American Art artists' files and records Archives of American Art
creatorOf Wilbur D. Peat correspondence Archives of American Art
referencedIn M. E. Diemer photographs of John Steuart Curry Archives of American Art
creatorOf Don Anderson papers relating to John Steuart Curry Archives of American Art
referencedIn Maynard Walker Gallery records Archives of American Art
referencedIn Elizabeth S. Navas papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf John Steuart Curry printed material Archives of American Art
creatorOf Margaret D. Engle letters from artists Archives of American Art
referencedIn Bassett, Norman, 1891- . Papers, 1932-1956. Wisconsin Historical Society, Newspaper Project
referencedIn Benton, Thomas Hart, 1889-1975. Review, 1944. Wisconsin Historical Society, Newspaper Project
creatorOf John Steuart Curry and Curry family papers Archives of American Art
referencedIn Curry, John Steuart : Biographical file. Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
referencedIn Norman Bassett papers Archives of American Art
referencedIn Lewis W. Rubenstein papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Martyl Langsdorf papers Archives of American Art
referencedIn Associated American Artists Records, 1916-1974 Syracuse University. Library. Special Collections Research Center
creatorOf Curry, John Steuart, 1897-1946. Letters to Frank Luther Mott. Madison, WI. 1940-1941. University of Iowa Libraries
creatorOf Curry, John Steuart, 1897-1946. Correspondence, 1940-1942. K-State Libraries, Kansas State University, Hale Library
creatorOf Harry Wickey papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Curry, John Steuart, 1897-1946. John Steuart Curry : [vertical file]. Morris Museum of Art Library
Role Title Holding Repository
referencedIn Oral history interview with Kathleen Curry relating to John Steuart Curry Archives of American Art
referencedIn Oral history interview with Albert Christ-Janer Archives of American Art
referencedIn Oral history interview with Charles H. Sawyer Archives of American Art
Relation Name
associatedWith American Art Association. corporateBody
associatedWith American Artists Group. corporateBody
associatedWith Anderson, Don. person
associatedWith Associated American Artists corporateBody
associatedWith Barton, John Rector, 1897-1965. person
associatedWith Bassett, Norman, 1891- . person
associatedWith Benton, Thomas Hart, 1889-1975. person
associatedWith Brinley, Putnam. person
associatedWith Christ-Janer, Albert, 1910-1973, person
associatedWith Craven, Thomas, b. 1889. person
associatedWith Culver, Charles B. (Charles Beach), 1908-1967. person
associatedWith Curry, Kathleen, 1899- person
associatedWith Curry, R. Eugene. person
associatedWith Diemer, M. E. person
associatedWith Dodd, Lamar. person
associatedWith Dunn, Harvey, 1884-1952. person
associatedWith Engle, Margaret D. person
associatedWith Fike, Mildred Curry. person
associatedWith John Herron Art Institute. corporateBody
associatedWith Marsh, Reginald, 1898-1954. person
associatedWith Martyl, 1918- person
associatedWith Maynard Walker Gallery. corporateBody
associatedWith McCloy, William Ashby. person
associatedWith Mott, Frank Luther, 1886-1964, person
associatedWith Murphy, Frank, 1890-1949. person
associatedWith Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) corporateBody
associatedWith Navas, Elizabeth S., 1885-1979. person
associatedWith Nock, Samuel A. person
associatedWith Rubenstein, Lewis W. (Lewis William), 1908- person
associatedWith Sawyer, Charles Henry, 1906- person
associatedWith United States. Dept. of the Treasury. Section of Fine Arts. corporateBody
associatedWith Whitney Museum of American Art. corporateBody
associatedWith Wickey, Harry. person
associatedWith Wood, Grant, 1891-1942. person
Place Name Admin Code Country
Wisconsin
Middle West
United States
United States
Subject
Art, American
Art
Art
Art
Art, Regional
Art teachers
Illustrators
Illustrators
Muralists
Muralists
Mural painting and decoration, American
Painters
Painters
Painters
Painting, American
Regionalism
Regionalism in art
Occupation
Activity

Person

Birth 1897-11-14

Death 1946-08-29

Americans

Information

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