CURRY, John Steuart
John Steuart Curry rejected both European academicism and modernism and believed that art should appeal to the common man. He began to represent midwestern American subjects, drawing on his experiences in Kansas. He returned to Westport in 1927, and his first major painting, Baptism in Kansas (Whitney Museum of American Art), was greeted with critical acclaim when exhibited at the 1928 Corcoran Gallery of Art biennial. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney took notice, provided Curry with financial support for the next two years, and later purchased Baptism for her newly established museum. In 1929 he completed Tornado Over Kansas (1929, Muskegon Museum of Art, Michigan), and in 1930 his first solo exhibition at the Whitney Studio Club was an immense success. By the early 1930s Curry was a firmly established painter of American regionalist scenes, and he found a tireless proponent of his work in Maynard Walker, owner of Ferargil Galleries, who represented his work for the next decade. [National Gallery of Art]
