Memorial 2

Object NamePainting

Artist / Maker Marvin Cone (American, 1891 - 1965)

Date1950

OriginUSA

MediumOil on linen canvas

Dimensions24 x 30 in. (61 x 76.2 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased by University Museums from Winnifred Cone with funds from Iowa State University Foundation. In the permanent collection, Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberUM82.9

Status

On view

Collections

CultureAmerican

Label TextLabel #1 As a close, life-long friend of Grant Wood (American, 1891-1942), Cone painted many of the same themes as Wood, including rural American life. They traveled, painted, and were influential to each other. In 1920 the hometown painters traveled to Paris. Cone had been in France as a soldier in World War I. Living in a pension on the Square de l'Abeille, Boulevard Port-Royal, they did not attend any classes, painting instead through the hot days of July into August completely on their own. It is during this visit that Deep Water and Poplars in Mist were painted and reflect an influence of Impressionism, which was highly and widely regarded at the time. Born in Cedar Rapids, Cone taught at Coe College from 1919-1960, where he organized the college art department and actively advanced local cultural institutions. Marvin Cone made important, though less publicized, contributions to the Regionalist tradition in American art. Throughout his career he sustained participation in regional and national exhibition. His painting style progressed from powerful rural landscapes through the series on carnivals and haunted rooms to abstracted compositions. As Abstract Expressionism forcefully grew after World War II (1941-1945), Cone began fragmenting familiar imagery, particularly farm house interiors focusing on doors and passageways. In time, the complete fragmentation of rectilinear doors evolved into abstracted color planes, perhaps inspired by other modern artists, such as Mark Rothko. Label #2 Grant Wood and Marvin Cone were boyhood friends. As they matured they inspired and nurtured each others artistic developments. While Wood became known for his rounded landscapes and skyscrapes, these were first inspired by the paintings of Cone. Wood's early death in 1942 prevented him from artistically exploring the abstraction, as Cone did in this 1950 painting which is part of the evolution of painting style used by Cone as he continued to abstract architectural elements, such as doors and windows, into simple shapes that expressed the overlapping of time and space.

Locations