A selection of ten early 20th century prints on loan from the University of Dubuque’s Knuth Collection, a collection of 50 Regionalist prints acquired by Dr. Helen Knuth (UD, 1933) from Associated American Artists (AAA). Also on view were two original AAA catalogs and Grant Wood’s Sultry Night, a print that was sold by AAA but because it contained a nude male figure was banned from being included in the catalogs or shipped via the U.S. Postal Service.
Early 20th century American Regionalist art is the core focus of the Dubuque Museum of Art’s permanent collection. Iowa artist, Grant Wood, was one of the founders of the Regionalist style. Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri and John Steuart Curry of Kansas, whose works were also in this exhibition, were also credited with establishing the American Regionalist style of art that focused on realistic, often heroic, portrayals of local, familiar, and mainly rural subjects.