Untitled (Still Life with Spider Mums)
Object NamePainting
Artist / Maker
Grant Wood
(American, 1892 - 1942)
Date1920s
MediumOil on canvas, framed
Dimensions26 1/4 × 29 1/2 × 2 in. (66.7 × 74.9 × 5.1 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineGift of Chuck Larson. In the permanent collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
Object numberUM2020.56
Status
Not on viewCollections
CultureAmerican
Label TextIn the 1910s and 1920s, Wood supported himself and his family during his early career mainly by his work as a craftsman, designer, and builder. Although it brought him little financial success for many years, painting was a constant occupation for him and through those paintings, we can trace his artistic development. The University Museums’ Still Life is typical of Wood’s production prior to the late 1920s. His approach is not appreciably different from that of dozens of other Iowans of the time, including conservatives like Charles A. Cumming who, until Wood’s ascendancy, was the preeminent artist in Iowa. It is a loose version of late 19th century academic painting, with an infusion of Impressionism, and is a generic floral still life, similar to many others. He painted a number of such works in the 1920s, including ones for the mortuary of his patron, David Turner, who gave the artist his studio-home at 5 Turner Alley in Cedar Rapids; Wood also sent paintings to Dunn’s funeral home in Des Moines, and these are now in the collection of the Des Moines Art Center. Though not at all beyond the mainstream of other American paintings of the time, Still Life does hold some hints of a distinction that would emerge at the end of the decade.
SignedSigned GRANT WOOD, lower left.
Locations
- (not entered) Iowa State University, Brunnier Main Storage
Object Name: Mural (three panels)
Grant Wood
1936-1937
Object number: U88.68abc
