American

John Steuart Curry

U.S. 1897-1946
Manhunt, Study of Oil 80.0037

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Curry's work was not well received in Kansas in 1930. His agent, Maynard Walker, had tremendous difficulty "selling" him to local audiences, even though, in 1931, Curry was receiving critical acclaim in New York, Chicago, and St. Louis. The fact that Curry no longer lived in Kansas was not lost to native Kansans. Then, there was the unflattering image of the state that Curry sometimes portrayed in his work. Most Kansans resented having the state's extreme weather, its religious beliefs, and its lynch mobs paraded on canvas and paper for New Yorkers to see. The painting Manhunt, for which this is a study, was only one of these embarrassments. Despite Walker's best efforts, there would be no sales of Curry's work in Kansas in 1931.

 

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