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John Steuart Curry, 1938

Candid portrait of John Steuart Curry working in his studio, holding paintbrushes. View the original source document: WHI 11834

b. Dunavant, Kansas, 1897
d. Topeka, Kansas, August, 1946

John Steuart Curry was an artist. His early years on a Kansas farm where he was "raised on hard work and the shorter catechism" profoundly influenced his life and career.

Education

Curry's interest in art began at the age of 12. After years of study in America and abroad, he gained his first success when the Whitney Club Studio exhibited his paintings in 1930. Thereafter he was recognized as a leader in the regional school of American art. In 1936, he was appointed artist in residence at the University of Wisconsin.

Legacy

Curry was highly productive in the following years. Under the terms of his appointment, he was free to paint and travel as he chose. He made some of his greatest works during the time, such as "The Tragic Prelude," a mural in the Kansas State Capitol at Topeka. Although he was not primarily concerned with teaching, Curry encouraged and helped rural artists throughout Wisconsin, and in 1940 inaugurated a successful annual state-wide exhibition of rural art. 

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L. E. Schmeckebier, Curry's Pageant of Amer. (New York, 1943); Milwaukee Journal, Jan. 10, 1937; Madison Wis. State journal, fan. 7-11, 1938, Aug. 30, 1946; Life, Mar. 31, 1941; Time, Dec. 24, 1934.