Study of "Iron Stove"

Object NameDrawing

Artist / Maker John Vincent Bloom (American, 1906 - 2002)

Date1933-1934

MediumPencil and charcoal on brown craft paper.

Dimensions79 3/4 x 44 1/4 in. (202.6 x 112.4 cm)

ClassificationsDrawings

Credit LineIn the permanent collection, Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberUM2005.296

Status

Not on view

Collections

Label TextAfter Francis McCray, John Bloom seems to have held the most responsible position in the Iowa PWAP. Like McCray, he was given the task of making detailed, enlarged drawings from Wood's sketches so that they could be transferred exactly to the mural canvases. Photographs of the swimming pool studio show several drawings whose elegant contours mark them as the work of Bloom. He was also probably involved in the painting of those figures as well. Born in DeWitt, Bloom was a child prodigy whose adolescent art reveals a talent for drawing and an inventive mind. Educated at the Art Institute of Chicago, Bloom taught classes there while still a student until the Great Depression forced him back home without having received his diploma. He attended both sessions of the Stone City Art Colony in the summers of 1932 and 1933, and it was there that Bloom's mastery came to the attention of Grant Wood. He was among the first artists Wood hired, and Bloom remained on the Project until it ended in late April of 1934. He may have stayed on beyond that as well, finishing the Engineering and the Home Economics murals in the summer of 1934. Bloom was among those painters who continued his career in art, although much of his living came from his successful industrial and commercial designing. His work was regularly accepted into exhibitions, and occasionally he had the prospect of painting other murals. His Study for Dubuque Mural, shown nearby, is probably his submission for the competition for the post office mural there which was won by Bertrand Adams and William E.L. Bunn. Later on Bloom won the commissions for the post office murals in DeWitt and Tipton, the cartoons for which are now in the collection of the Brunnier Art Museum. Both of these cartoons show that Bloom understood Wood's style well but increased its underlying abstract approach to form. Bloom's large drawing, Study of "Iron Stove," is one of the most puzzling objects that can be traced to the PWAP. This image of two women working energetically in a kitchen graced by an elaborately detailed iron stove is similar to the kitchen in the right section of Wood's 1934 painting, Dinner for Threshers. Wood's figures are more two-dimensional and folk-like than Bloom’s substantial and rounded forms, and Bloom's move with vigor as opposed to the static stateliness found in Wood's farm women and men. Yet, the two are clearly related. Bloom’s drawing was a study for a portion of a mural that was planned for the Des Moines Public Library. Commissioned by the library, these murals were intended to fill four lunette spaces in the rotunda of the library building with the subjects "Rural Work," "Urban Work," "Recreation," and "Community Activities." Many of the Project artists worked on these complex compositions which were ready to be painted on canvas when funding for the PWAP ran out. Of all the artists who worked on the Iowa PWAP, John Bloom’s career is perhaps the best documented, even more than Grant Wood's. After his death, his studio was found to be nearly intact with examples of his art from childhood to the last decade of his life. In addition, like Adams and Johnson, Bloom retained many documents from his long career which have and will continue to be a resource for the study of this period in Iowa art history. The artist's son, Dr. Tom Bloom, donated this rich archive to the Brunnier Art Museum.

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