John Steuart Curry

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Detail of Curry's controversial mural in Kansas Statehouse, illustrating John Brown and the clash of forces in Bleeding Kansas

John Steuart Curry (November 14, 1897 - August 29, 1946) was an American painter noted for his pictures depicting life in his home state, Kansas. Along with Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, he was hailed as one of the three great painters of American Regionalism of the first half of the twentieth century. He is well-known for creating both oil paintings and mural cycles, and lesser-known for making World War II propaganda posters and theatrical sets and costume designs.

Born on a farm near Dunavant, Kansas, he attended Geneva College (now Hobart and William Smith Colleges) in New York and later spent a year in Paris, where he studies the works of Peter Paul Rubens, Gustave Courbet and Honore Daumier. After his return to the United States he settled in New York City and became a teacher at the Art Students League and Cooper Union. He later traveled with the Ringling Brothers Circus.

Many of his works portrayed country scenes in Kansas, and his work Baptism in Kansas was purchased in 1931 by the Whitney Museum in New York City, establishing him as a major artist.

Curry's most famous works were murals designed for the Kansas Statehouse, which were seen as controversial at the time. They were thought by some to show the state in a negative light, portraying fiery abolitionist John Brown as well as other scenes containing religious fanaticism and tornadoes. Curry, angered by this resentment, left the murals unsigned at his death in 1946. Since Curry's death (a heart attack perhaps caused by the stress over the public's reaction to the paintings), the murals have come to be regarded as masterpieces on par with similar works done by Benton in Missouri.