FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Springfield, MO. (November 20, 2017) – The Springfield Art Museum is pleased to announce the acquisition of Fruits and Vegetables by renowned Regionalist, Grant Wood. Wood achieved international recognition in the mid-1930s for promoting a style of art that depicted everyday scenes of Midwestern life. The Museum previously owned seventeen of the nineteen lithographs that Wood produced during his lifetime.
Fruits was purchased with gifts (by exchange) of the late Jeannette L. Musgrave. The acquisition of Fruits was made possible by donations from Amateur d’Art and the Southwest Missouri Museum Associates (SMMA). This is the fifth of Wood’s lithographs purchased with funds donated by Amateur d’Art over the years. “We are grateful to both groups for their contributions and spirit of generosity, and for strengthening and expanding our collection of Art of the Midwest, an important focus area in our Collection Plan,” said Museum Director Nick Nelson.
Fruits and Vegetables complete a smaller series of four prints, within the larger group of nineteen, created by Wood in 1939 to highlight the bounty of Iowa’s rich soil. Along with fellow Midwestern artists Thomas Hart Benton and John Steuart Curry, Wood gained popularity during the Great Depression for focusing on American scenes that upheld supposedly American values. Of particular note, Vegetables was hand-colored by Wood’s sister, Nan, the female model for his iconic painting, American Gothic.
The Museum will exhibit the complete set of nineteen prints in Grant Wood: Lithographs, a special exhibition that examines the artist's thematic concerns and role in the growth and popularity of printmaking in America. See Grant Wood: Lithographs at the Springfield Art Museum, located at 1111 E. Brookside Drive from December 9, 2017 through March 25, 2018. Admission is always free. Donations are gratefully accepted.
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The Springfield Art Museum is Springfield, Missouri’s oldest cultural institution, founded in 1928. A department of the City of Springfield, we are dedicated to enhancing the education and documenting the cultural heritage of the people of southwest Missouri through the collection, preservation, and exhibition of art objects. For more information, please visit www.sgfmuseum.org. For more information, please contact Joshua Best, Development and Marketing Coordinator, (417) 874-2859 or jbest@springfieldmo.gov