sketch for Kansas Pastoral II (Kansas Farm Family), John Steuart Curry

Exhibition Label:
"John Steuart Curry: Agrarian Allegories," Aug-2006, Kate Meyer
Curry’s vision of a Kansas family farm seems typical and even nostalgic by modern standards, but this agrarian scene serves as an idyllic potential future compared to the hard times of the 1930s. The crops have been harvested, and the livestock graze contentedly at an orderly, well-kept farm that has not been mortgaged. The concrete grain silo in the distance would have only been available to the most modern farms by 1937, and the farmer stands at ease, gazing at his acreage rather than working the fields. Curry believed that modern agricultural techniques and practices would reduce the labor necessary to run a farm, leaving more leisure time for farm families. The farmer and wife stand in divided spheres of barnyard and home, their gender roles further reinforced as the farmer presides over his hogs and the mother nurtures her children while the nearby hen tends to her own young brood.