Wood's farmscapes of this period depict a 'streamlined rural paradise' devoid of sweating hands, market risks, foreclosed mortgages, and the effects of bad weather, crop pests and disease. Thomas Jefferson's vision of a republic of family farms engaged in subsistence agriculture had great appeal to the regionalist artists who idealized the noble farmer and caring wife. This quote was a favorite theme for many mural projects of the era because of the emphasis on the nation's agrarian heritage.
The first half of this quotation appears below the window ledge above the first stairway landing. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization." The murals were inspired by a quotation from Daniel Webster's remarks on "The Agriculture of England" made on Januin the State House in Boston: Wood welcomed this opportunity to employ artists and made his selection from those who had exhibited at the Iowa State Fair. As newly appointed head of the Public Works of Art Project for Iowa, which would later be called the Civil Works Administration, Wood was asked by Iowa State President Raymond M. They are without doubt the major artistic feature of the Iowa State University Library.Īll panels are oil on canvas and were created under the federal program providing work for unemployed artists in the 1930s. The murals can be found on the first floor and on the walls of the staircase leading to the Upper Lobby of the original building. Parks Library is the home of the largest works of art designed by renowned American regionalism artist Grant Wood (1892-1942).
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