The Homesteading and the Building of Barbed Wire Fences

The Homesteading and the Building of Barbed Wire Fences focuses on the privatization of the western lands of the United States. In John Steuart Curry’s mural, the industrious and self-sufficient farmer protects his land with barbed wire, taming the land by removing sod and planting crops. A mother and daughter peel potatoes for the evening meal in front of their sod home. The ominous clouds foreshadow the catastrophic times to come: the combination of extensive over-farming, severe drought, poor soil management, and high winds would eventually result in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

When commissioned to paint murals depicting the life of the homesteader and the story of pioneers in the Kansas State Capitol, Curry asserted: “I have my own ideas about telling the story of pioneers coming into Kansas. I want to paint this war with nature and I want to paint the things I feel as a native Kansan.”

Curry, like other regionalist painters of the time, focused his work on scenes of the rural Midwest and reflections of American culture and local traditions. Regionalism was an artistic movement that emerged in the 1930s in reaction to and opposition to European Modernism. Regionalism fell out of favor as Abstract Expressionism gained popularity following World War II. As the leading practitioners of the movement, John Steuart Curry, Grant Wood, and Thomas Hart Benton were known as the Regionalist Triumvirate.