Monday, March 19, 2018

A couple of Grant Wood-related footnotes

"Appraisal," 1931, Dubuque Carnegie-Stout Public Library, owner; displayed at the Dubuque Museum of Art.


Yesterday's post, Grant Wood and the story of "Sultry Night,"  discussed two retrospective exhibits of the Iowa artist's work, one in progress now at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the other at the Des Moines Art Center.

"Victorian Survival," 1931, Dubuque Carnegie-Stout Public Library, owner; displayed at the Dubuque Museum of Art.

Here's a link to the Art Center's promotional material for its March 30-June 24 exhibit; and here's another, to the Whitney site, offering a virtual tour of the more than 100 items in the retrospective that will remain on display there through June 10.

"Self-portrait," 1932/1941, Figge Art Museum, Davenport.

Iowa museums and institutions own the largest concentration of Wood works, so many of the items on display now in New York have traveled there from the Hawkeye state. The images here are of major Wood paintings from Iowa collections on display at the Whitney. There's much more in other categories of the exhibit.

"Young Corn," 1931, Cedar Rapids Community School District, owner; displayed at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.

Of course all of these works will return home to Iowa when the Whitney exhibit closes, so there's little excuse for Iowans who enjoy Wood's work not to enjoy it first-hand. Other fine works are as nearby as Omaha (the Joslyn) and Minneapolis.

"Spring in the Country," 1941, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.

In addition, Davenport's Figge Art Museum acquired by purchase, gift and bequest between 1964 and shortly after Nan Wood Graham's 1990 death, an incredible collection of art work, documents, scrapbooks, furniture and personal memorabilia related to the artist. The Figge currently is, in fact, successor to the Grant Wood Estate.

"Woman With Plant," 1929, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.

A number of documentary items have been digitized and are available via the University of Iowa's Iowa Digital Library. You can access that collection --- and others related to Wood and his work --- by following this link.

Unfortunately, the link to the University of Iowa Grant Wood collection doesn't seem to be working on the Figge page. Here's a link to that collection that does work.

"Appraisal" is among my favorite Wood paintings which, as you might expect, is why it has pride of place at the top of this post.


"Birthplace of Herbert Hoover," 1931, Des Moines Art Center and Minneapolis Institute of Art.
"Plaid Sweater," 1931, University of Iowa Museum of Art.

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