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Chris L. Christensen

Chris L. Christensen

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John Steuart Curry

In 1936, Chris L. Christensen, Dean of the College of Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin, invited John Steuart Curry to be the school’s artist-in-residence, the first program of its kind in the nation. Christensen promoted the “Wisconsin Idea” – that the University should serve the entire state and influence people’s lives beyond the classroom. Curry and Christensen shared the belief that engagement with the arts was a sign of a healthy democracy. Curry understood his position as a partnership with the school’s agricultural sciences. He held painting workshops, socialized with students, encouraged amateur artists, and visited agricultural projects throughout the state, often with Christensen. In this portrait of his friend, Curry painted Christensen marching men through corn fields, a reference to the University’s innovative crossbreed corn program, which benefited farmers throughout Wisconsin. The towering position of Christensen suggests his leadership and man’s ability to control and transform nature.
Artist
John Steuart Curry
(American, 1897 – 1946)
Title
Chris L. Christensen
Date
1941
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
72 x 48 in. Overall
Credit
On loan from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Accession No.
3.1999.2
Classification
Paintings
Geography
United States

Related

1943, gifted by the U.S. Treasury Department to the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture [now called the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]; 1999, deposited as a long-term loan to Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Junker, Patricia. "John Steuart Curry: Inventing the Middle West." Madison, WI: Elvehjem Museum of Art and New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1998. pp. 71, 185, pl. 67, fig. 2
  • Kroiz, Lauren. "Cultivating Citizens: The Regional Work of Art in the New Deal Era." Oakland: University of California Press, 2018. pp. 186-188, 191, fig. 79, 81
  • Erickson, Doug. "7 Objects of Affection,” On Wisconsin vol. 188, no. 4 (Winter 2017): 26-27. p. 26, no. 6

  • John Steuart Curry: Inventing the Middle West: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 3/7/1998–1/3/1999

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