Realism and Regionalism: Works on Paper from the Swope Collection

Swope Art Museum

Terre Haute, IN

812.238.1676

Realism and Regionalism: Works on Paper from the Swope Collection

Rarely-seen treasures of the 1930s and '40s will be the subject of a special exhibition February 11 - April 11, 1999 at the Swope Art Museum. "Realism and Regionalism: Works on Paper from the Swope Collection" features 22 original prints, drawings, and watercolors from the Swope's extensive holdings of American art. The images on display are examples of a movement known as "Regionalism," which celebrated rural American life and values from the Great Depression through World War II.

Because prints, drawings, and watercolors are highly susceptible to light damage, they can be shown only periodically. This exhibition provides a rare opportunity to view important images by America's greatest Regionalist artists, including masterpieces by Grant Wood, John Steuart Curry, and Thomas Hart Benton. Because their work is representational, these artists were long viewed as old-fashioned and backward-looking by a younger generation of abstract artists. As the images in the exhibition make clear, however, the Regionalists were incisive and perceptive observers of their time and place. The show examines the cultural context in which the art was produced and suggests new interpretations of the works.

From top to bottom: Carl Hall, It Came to Pass, 1940, watercolor on cardboard, 19 1/4 21 5/8 inches, gift of the Swope Alliance; John Stockton DeMartelly, Old Man Towne Bought a New Scythe, lithograph, published by Associated American Artists, NY, Museum purchase.

For further biographical information on selected artists cited above please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.

rev. 9/20/10

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