Now in Paige Court: John Steuart Curry (American, 1897–1946), An All-American (Forward Pass), 1941, mixed media on canvas mounted to hardboard, 41 x 31 in., gift of Abbott Laboratories, Chicago, transfer from the Wisconsin Athletics Department, 2013.8.
Saturday’s Badgers vs. Rutgers football game will mark Veteran’s Day with tributes including a flyover by a WWII aircraft and a celebration of The Mosquito Bowl a Netflix drama based on the true story of Wisconsin football players turned US Marines Bob Bauman and Dave Schreiner.
What does that have to do with the Chazen Museum of Art? In addition to a staff replete with Badger fans, the museum has a painting that depicts Schreiner catching a pass at Camp Randall Stadium. An All-American (Forward Pass) by John Steuart Curry is now on view in the museum’s Paige Court. The mixed-media painting entered the Chazen collection in 2013 as a transfer from the Wisconsin Athletics Department.
Curry, then the artist-in-residence at UW’s College of Agriculture (now College of Agriculture and Life Sciences), painted the work in 1941 with two-time All-American Schreiner as the model. Abbott Laboratories had commissioned the painting to illustrate the cover of their monthly clinical journal. In 1945, when Curry learned of Schreiner’s death in the battle of Okinawa, he suggested that Abbott donate the painting to the university, which they did.
To learn more about The Mosquito Bowl, see Gayle Worland’s story and Barry Adams’ Wisconsin State Journal column, and Janine Yorimoto Boldt’s blog entry.