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Interviewee:

Curry, Kathleen, 1899-  Search this

Interviewer:

Brown, Robert F  Search this

Subject:

Curry, John Steuart  Search this

Type:

Interviews

Sound recordings

Citation:

Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Kathleen Curry relating to John Steuart Curry, 1990 and 1992. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Mural painting and decoration  Search this

Regionalism  Search this

Theme:

Women  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)11747

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)214752

AAA_collcode_curry90

Theme:

Women

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_oh_214752

Interviewee:

Curry, Kathleen, 1899-  Search this

Interviewer:

Brown, Robert F.  Search this

Names:

Curry, John Steuart, 1897-1946  Search this

Extent:

39 Pages (Transcript)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Interviews

Sound recordings

Date:

1990 and 1992

Scope and Contents:

An interview of Kathleen Curry regarding John Steuart Curry, conducted on 1990 and 1992, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.

Curry discusses her childhood; meeting John Steuart Curry and their subsequent marriage; their friends; his work; his temperment; their relationship; moving to Wisconsin where he became the artist in residence in the School of Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin; his major mural projects; Laurence Schmeckebier's writing of "John Steuart Curry's Pageant of America"; J. S. Curry's death and the hardships that followed.

Biographical / Historical:

Katleen Curry (1899-) is the wife of regionalist painter John Steuart Curry.

General:

Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 19 min.

Provenance:

These interviews are part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.

Occupation:

Painters -- Kansas  Search this

Muralists -- Kansas  Search this

Topic:

Mural painting and decoration  Search this

Regionalism  Search this

Genre/Form:

Interviews

Sound recordings

Sponsor:

Funding for the transcription of this interview provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Women's Committee.

Identifier:

AAA.curry90

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9574f6aad-759f-40ac-81c5-6dcb1e52d0cd

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-curry90

Creator:

Hopkins, Andrew W., 1880-1973  Search this

Curry, Kathleen, 1899-  Search this

Subject:

Christensen, Chris L. (Chris Lauriths)  Search this

Curry, John Steuart  Search this

Type:

Correspondence

Date:

1936 Aug. 31

Citation:

Andrew W. Hopkins. Andrew W. Hopkins letter to Mrs. John Steuart Curry, 1936 Aug. 31. John Steuart Curry and Curry family papers, 1848-1999. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Condolence notes  Search this

Death  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA)13577

See more items in:

John Steuart Curry and Curry family papers, 1848-1999

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_item_13577

Creator:

Curry, John Steuart, 1897-1946  Search this

Names:

Curry, Kathleen, 1899-  Search this

Extent:

10.1 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Scrapbooks

Video recordings

Photographs

Sketches

Interviews

Date:

1848-1999

Summary:

The papers of painter, muralist, and illustrator John Steuart Curry, and Curry family papers, measure 10.1 linear feet and date from 1848 to 1999. Papers document his career and family history through certificates, correspondence, photographs, clippings, contracts, receipts, inventories, writings, notes, and other materials. The papers contain particularly rich documentation of Curry's period as artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin, from 1936 to 1946. Mural projects in Kansas, Washington, DC, and Wisconsin are also documented.

Scope and Content Note:

The papers of painter, muralist, and illustrator John Steuart Curry, and Curry family papers, measure 10.1 linear feet and date from 1848 to 1999. Papers document his career and family history through certificates, correspondence, photographs, clippings, contracts, receipts, inventories, writings, notes, and other materials. The papers contain particularly rich documentation of Curry's period as artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin, from 1936 to 1946. Mural projects in Kansas, Washington, DC, and Wisconsin are also documented.

Biographical Materials include chronologies, biographical narratives, genealogical notes, certificates and awards, and other ephemera related to Curry and his family. Family Correspondence includes the earliest records created by Curry himself, including letters home from art school and from the East Coast during his early career.

Correspondence and Project files document mural projects, appearances, gallery relationships, and other activities from the early 1930s until his death in 1946 with correspondence, photographs, clippings, contracts, writings, and other miscellany. Subject files include pictorial reference and research files created by Curry for subjects depicted in his murals and paintings. Curry's writings include essays, lectures, interviews, and notes related to his technical and philosophical approach to art, as well as notes from his various travels, and essays by others about Curry. Personal Business Records contain records of artwork, business transactions, and personal finances.

Print Materials include print copies of published artwork by Curry, including magazine illustrations from Curry's early career. Extensive clippings, exhibition catalogs, and a scrapbook created by Curry as a youth are also found. Photographs depict Curry throughout his life in formal portraits, candid snapshots, and publicity photographs, with a significant number of photographs depicting Curry creating and posing with his artwork. The Artwork series contains a few sketches by Curry and seven canvases used for testing art materials. Additional sketches are found in Subject Files and scrapbooks.

Estate Papers contain materials dated after Curry's death in 1946 and mainly document the activities of Kathleen Curry in managing her husband's estate from 1946 until her death in 2001. Estate papers contain writings about Curry, correspondence, inventories of artwork, and alphabetical files documenting sales, exhibitions, and other projects.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into ten series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1911-1993 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 2: Family Correspondence, 1916-1946 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 3: Correspondence and Project Files, 1928-1946 (Boxes 1-3, OV 11; 2.3 linear feet)

Series 4: Subject Files, 1848-1946 (Boxes 3-4, OV 11-12; 0.7 linear feet)

Series 5: Notes and Writings, circa 1911-1946 (Box 4; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 6: Personal Business Records, 1916-1952 (Box 4, OV 13; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 7: Print Materials, 1918-1985 (Boxes 4-5, 10; OV 12-13; 1.6 linear feet)

Series 8: Photographs, circa 1900-1998 (Boxes 5-6, OV 14; 1.1 linear feet)

Series 9: Artwork, 1941, undated (Box 7, OV 12, 14, 15; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 10: Estate Papers, circa 1946-1999 (Boxes 7-9 and rolled document; 2.3 linear feet)

Biographical Note:

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.

Related Material:

The Archives of American Art holds an oral history interview with Kathleen Curry regarding John Steuart Curry conducted in 1990 and 1992.

Separated Material:

The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reels 164-168 and 4574-4576) including 98 sketchbooks, 1919-1942; a ledger, 1938-1946, of expenses with four loose letters to John Steuart Curry in Italian and Spanish; a notebook, 1932-1938, titled "Account and records of works, etc."; a journal, undated, of drafts of poems, and approximately 50 sketches. Loaned materials were returned to the lender some of which were subsequently donated to the Worcester Museum of Art in Worcester, Massachusetts. This material is not described in the collection container inventory.

John Steuart Curry memorabilia received with the Kathleen Curry's donation in 1979 (baby cup, baby dress, overalls, medals, paint box, watercolor box, 2 photographs) were transferred to the Spencer Museum of Art in 1985.

Provenance:

John Steuart Curry's widow, Kathleen Curry, lent materials on reels 164-168 for microfilming in 1971. In 1979, she subsequently donated portions of the material lent, along with additional items, some of which were transferred to Spencer Museum of Art. In 1972, Mildred Curry Fike, John Steuart Curry's sister, gave material and R. Eugene Curry, a brother, donated more material in 1975 and 1993. Ellen Schuster, John Steuart Curry's daughter, donated the home movies in 1973 and Daniel Schuster, John Steuart Curry's son-in-law, gave additional papers in 1991 in 1992, 1995, and 1999. In 1992, 1999 and 2000, additions were received from Kathleen Curry that may contain material previously filmed as a loan on reels 164-168.

Restrictions:

The bulk of the collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website. Access to undigitized portions requires an appointment.

Rights:

The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.

Occupation:

Painters -- Wisconsin  Search this

Topic:

Art -- Study and teaching  Search this

Art -- Technique  Search this

Works of art  Search this

Regionalism  Search this

Muralists -- Wisconsin  Search this

Illustrators -- Wisconsin  Search this

Genre/Form:

Scrapbooks

Video recordings

Photographs

Sketches

Interviews

Citation:

John Steuart Curry and Curry family papers, 1900-1999. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art

Identifier:

AAA.currjohn

See more items in:

John Steuart Curry and Curry family papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9943b22b6-7e9f-4538-b0aa-808dbe459e9d

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-currjohn

Photographer:

Tenney, Thomas W.  Search this

Names:

Curry, John Steuart, 1897-1946 -- Homes and haunts -- Photographs  Search this

Curry, Kathleen, 1899- -- Photographs  Search this

Extent:

15 Items (photographic prints)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Date:

1941 Aug

Scope and Contents:

Copy photographs, mainly interior views, of John Steuart Curry's house in Madison, Wisconsin selected from a group of photographs taken by Thomas W. Tenney in August 1941 and copied in 1992. Curry and his wife, Kathleen, are pictured in some of the photographs.

Biographical / Historical:

Tenney's parents were good friends of painter John Steuart Curry. The Curry's allowed Tenney to photograph their house for a proposed magazine article which never materialized.

Provenance:

Donated 1992 by Thomas W. Tenney.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.

Identifier:

AAA.tennthom

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9e1cf5a71-3eac-4c18-8990-9bd391496e00

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-tennthom