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Feb. 28, 1942

GRANT
By John Steuart Curry

December 7, 1941, ended an era which in a few years we will look back on as golden. The works of Grant Wood will stand like monuments of that age. They will be referred to an reproduced again and again as a true and pentrating analysis of a phase of life of that era.
Grant Wood did more than any other artis of our time to awaken in the minds of the American people an interest in American painting, and as a middle western regionalist Grant inspired and taught the young painters of the present that in their own environment there is a wealth of material to interpret. It was once nearly impossible for an American artist to receive recognition without going to Europe to paint, or approximating it by painting certain sacrosanct New England areas like Gloucester or Newport. Grant, through his own work, his teaching and lecturing, helped change that. He jarred Americans awake to an earnest desire to interpret and appreciate the endless glories of America's landscape, life and people. In his career he practiced what he preached by selling his art locally in Iowa, by returning there to paint the familiar scene no matter where he had studies, the Chicago Art Institute, Julien's in Paris, Belgium. And because of his sincerity, his earnest belief in this philosophy or doing the thing you understand and love best he has received world-wide acclaim. The critics in Paris were enthusiastic over his exhibit