Rhythms - Bean Fields at Sunset

Object NameMural

Artist / Maker Rose Frantzen ((American, b. 1965))

Date2018

MediumOil on canvas.

Dimensions48 × 96 × 2 in. (121.9 × 243.8 × 5.1 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineCommissioned by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the University Museums for the Advanced Teaching and Research Building. In the Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberU2018.220

Status

On view

Collections

CultureAmerican

Label TextArtist statement: I wonder, as I stand at the crest of a hill, in the song of sunset, with the music of the birds, and the silence of the beans growing, if farmers know they are artists? Drawing with their tractors, designing fields which reveal the rhythms of these Iowa hills, accommodating the waterways, the valley, the trees. The hilltops crescendoing in sunlight, their shadows supporting like the bass keeping time, reminding me with its enveloping movement that yes, yes, yes, you are here, witnessing the end of another day. Poetic statement: Standing at the crest of a hill, with sun setting on fields growing in rows of blues, purples, greens, can colors really call me to listen, call me to see, to be, to acknowledge, like the bird song, and sing goodbye to another day, with gratitude? Practical statement: For the past two growing seasons Rose Frantzen has been studying the beanfields of Jackson County, Iowa. With the generosity of farmers she has met, she will be sharing some of the beauty she has found in a 4'x8' painting being created for the new ARTB Building on the ISU campus.

Locations