Head of Swine

In 1939, artist-in-residence John Steuart Curry and John Barton, Professor of Rural Sociology, established the Wisconsin Regional Art Program (WRAP) at the University of Wisconsin. They were supported by the Dean of the College of Agriculture, Chris Christensen. The program hosted the first statewide Rural Arts Exhibit in 1940 at the Memorial Union as part of the University’s annual Farm and Home Week. Participants were non-professional artists from rural backgrounds. WRAP encouraged laypeople to create art, cultivate personal styles, and draw inspiration from daily life. Emphasis was placed on personal expression rather than technical skill. Curry and Barton believed not only that art and culture enriched the lives of farmers, but also saw artistic expression and participation in culture as a sign of a healthy democracy. The program received national attention in the 1940s and Barton published Rural Arts of Wisconsin in 1948, featuring biographies of many of WRAP’s artists to promote the program’s mission and celebrate its success. WRAP continued under the Division of Continuing Studies at the University of Wisconsin until 2020. It hosted regional art exhibits and workshops and purchased over 110 works of art for its permanent collection. Alice Weber began painting regularly in 1933 after an illness. She took art lessons from Sister Cassiana at the St. Joseph Academy in Green Bay before attending about a dozen oil painting lessons at the Green Bay Vocational School in 1934. She met Curry in 1941 and credited him with motivating her to continue painting while developing a personal style. According to Barton, she stated that “My painting makes it a lot easier to do the household chores. It enables me to be a better homemaker.” Such a statement made Weber an exemplary WRAP participant, since WRAP promoted art’s ability to ennoble daily life. Barton praised Weber’s humor and interest in experimenting with subject matter, such as Head of Swine. Weber asked her local butcher to loan her the pig’s head for the painting because she thought it was a “very interesting object” and wanted to capture the dead pig’s “smile.” The unusual still life painting features a pig’s head with blood dripping from its neck, along with a large bowl and butcher’s tools. Her name is signed in the same red paint she used to represent the blood.