John+Steuart+Curry

=John Steuart Curry= "Painter, muralist, & illustrator John Steuart Curry is considered one of the 3 important painters of the American Regionalist movement, along with Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri & Grant Wood of Iowa." He was born in Dunavant, Kansas in 1897, and grew up on his family's farm. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago for two years. He studied alongside Edward J. Timmons and John Norton and later studied for a year in Paris with Basil Schoukhaieff. He eventually settled in Connecticut and gave himself an ultimatum; to either create a great piece of artwork or give up completely. (Destinee) []

= Baptism in Kansas = [|Baptism in Kansas] //Baptism in Kansas// was Curry's first piece of artwork to become famous. This painting in particular offers a religious concept and the impact it had on society at the time as it shows a man baptizing a woman in a farm tank. A lot of Curry's paintings reflected religion and focused on the relation of mankind to nature as well as men and women to one another. The dramatic change that The Great Depression brought on mankind during it's time allowed John Steuart Curry to express the complex issues, experiences, and concerns he observed in society through the "rural Midwestern landscape" he created in his paintings. (Destinee) []

= The Runway =

[|The Runway] On one of his trips home to Kansas, Curry encountered and traveled with members of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Baily Circus. These interesting individuals sparked Curry's interest which lead to a genre of "America's sideshow" inspired paintings. "Migrant road menders, uprooted farmers, and circus itinerants all contradicted traditional views of stable family and community." Their lifestyles set heroic examples because of the way they decided to live their lives during this hard time and John Steuart Curry perceived their way of life "as emphatic reminders that God works in strange ways." (Destinee) [] = = = Parade to War =

[|Parade to War] //Parade to War// was created at the very start of The Great Depression, on the eve of World War II. Curry took the joyfulness and celebratory environment of a parade and turned it into a haunting and ominous scene which is portrayed by the skeletal faces of the soldiers and the panicked look on the woman's face in the bottom right corner. By painting the lighter half of the scene with the promising and brighter image of the young girl and her soldier and the young boy gathering streamers along with the darker half of the image with the police officer and the worried middle-aged woman, John Steuart Curry created a contrast which can directly relate to the divided and uneven feelings and emotions of Americans at this time. (Destinee) []