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. ________________________________________________ From the University Museums Collections Handbook, vol. 2, 2025: Maquoketa, Iowa artist Rose Frantzen is represented multiple times throughout the Art on Campus Collection’s commissioned works of art. In the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ dual portrait Do You Know What’s Inside This Flower? George Washington Carver Mentors a Young Henry A. Wallace, the legacy of alumnus George Washington Carver is shown through references to Carver’s research notes fading into the soil. Carver is shown peering into the earth with a young Henry A. Wallace, famed botanist, founder of Hi-Bred Corn Company, Secretary of Agriculture, and Vice President of the United States. Wallace and Carver lived on Iowa State’s campus when Carver was a graduate student and Wallace’s father, Henry C., was a professor at the college. Carver took the young Wallace on nature walks and Wallace later credited Carver for his life-long interest in botany. University Museums’ first commissioned work of art by Rose Frantzen demonstrates the ability of a portrait to portray the legacy of both alums, while working in a manner that would serve public art in the future. Rose Frantzen has also been commissioned for works of art for the Advanced Teaching and Research Building, and a large 3-panel mural for the Gerdin Business Building’s addition (see next two pages). The Gerdin mural depicts the student experience at the Ivy College of Business, and is an excellent example of Frantzen working in the public art sphere with the guidance of an established public art committee. By integrating symbols from the business world, illustrations of the global supply chain, and the interconnectedness of the world through business, Frantzen centers the mural around the present experience of student and their future influence in the field. Known for her oil paintings, Frantzen also created the Faces of Iowa State, a portrait series discussed on the following pages.

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