Baptism in Kansas was the painting that made Curry famous. It represents the influence of the Church in depression era Kansas. Since the artist is local and the subject matter appropriate, I'd love to find a place in the church somewhere to hang a print of this. It just seems like the kind of thing any church in NE Kansas would have, though I've never seen it.
Return of Private Davis from the Argonne is a painting that Curry spent years working on. It represents Curry's recollection of the funeral of a World War 1 soldier in Winchester, Ks. Because of my military leanings and the location of the scene (my hometown), this is the one work of which I'd really like to own a print for my home or office.
Line Storm is probably the first John Steuart Curry painting I can remember and has had the strongest impact on me. A print of this eerie painting was hung in the doctor's office in Winchester where it stared at me while I waited for my sports physical each year, but I believe it's now hanging in a private home. The color of it is so strange that it evokes the same queer feeling you get when a real afternoon storm in Kansas casts a greenish pall over everything.
Tornado In Kansas is said to represent an actual farm a few miles from Winchester where Curry lived and where his relatives still live today. My brother had a classmate that grew up there.
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John Steuart Curry's boyhood home was occupied by his cousin Nelle Curry Manville and her family, until it was moved to an outdoor museum called "Old Jefferson Town" in Oskaloosa Ks in 1990. Neil Manville, Nelle's grandson and my classmate and close friend from my 18 years in Winchester, lived in that same home through our elementary school years until the Jefferson County Historical Society bought the home and moved it to it's current location at Old Jefferson Town. It can be toured on weekends along with other historical buildings from Jefferson County. Their website is www.oldjeffersontown.com.
Neil and I had something in common that had us as close friends from our first day in preschool: we were both born Nov 18, 1979 (however he bragged about being the older one by six hours). I remember playing at his house while we were growing up and all the neat things they would show me, including bullets and cannonballs they found in their fields while they were farming. The field that they farmed was the location for the Battle of Hickory Point in 1856.
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