REAL PEOPLE. REAL STORIES.

John Steuart Curry

(1897-1946)

In June 1937, a group of newspaper editors began a movement to commission John Steuart Curry, a famous Kansas artist, to paint murals in the Kansas Statehouse. When Curry learned of the mural proposal he stated, "I have my own ideas about telling the story of pioneers coming into Kansas. I want to paint this war with nature and I want to paint the things I feel as a native Kansan."

Curry planned the murals as a three-act conception: the settlement of Kansas including the Conquistadores, the plainsmen, and John Brown; the life of the homesteader; and pastoral prosperity, including modern Kansas with its farms and its industry.

Amidst conflicts, controversy and criticism, Curry completed the murals in the summer of 1942 and considered the paintings to be his greatest work. In a statement published in the Topeka Daily Capitol, Curry remarked, "I sincerely believe that in the fragments, particularly the panel of John Brown, I have accomplished the greatest paintings I have yet done, and that they will stand as historical monuments. To the Mural Commission and to the children who donated their pennies, as well as to all others who have believed in me, I wish to express my appreciation and to assure you that I have done the best I could with the space at my command."

Curry, along with Iowa's Grant Wood and Missouri's Thomas Hart Benton made up America's great triumverate of Regionalist painters.