When Tillage Begins, Other Arts Follow: Grant Wood and Christian Petersen Murals

Dr. Lea Rosson DeLong

Lecture September 17, 2006 2:00pm

Brunnier Art Museum, Iowa State University, Ames, IA

In the lecture today, we will discuss three main topics: the two primary products of the New Deal art agency, the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) are both at Iowa State University; the legacy of that Depression era at Iowa State and specifically President Raymond M. Hughes; and the artists Grant Wood and Christian Petersen and the PWAP studio at the University of Iowa.

The works of art that are the inspiration of this lecture, exhibition and book are Grant Wood’s When Tillage Begins, Other Arts Follow (1934-37) and Christian Petersen’s The History of Dairying (1934-35)

Wood’s murals in the ISU library are his only murals still installed as he directed and still at the site for which he designed them. Petersen’s sculpted mural is also as he installed it and at the same site.

Both were produced in 1934, and both were largely funded through the first New Deal art agency, the PWAP (December 1933 – June 1934). Wood, head of the PWAP in Iowa, established the headquarters at the University of Iowa in Iowa City; the artists worked mainly in an unused building on campus, which held a swimming pool; thus, it was sometimes referred to as the “swimming pool studio. Petersen designed his sculpture there in Iowa City, but it was fabricated at Iowa State College and fired in the kilns of the Department of Ceramic Engineering.

The Public Works of Art Project (December 1933 – June 1934) was the earliest art program established by the New Deal. The New Deal was the plan of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to alleviate the effects of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Among the remarkable things about the New Deal is that it included not just public works such as bridges, buildings, roads, dams, but also art. It recognized the importance of artists and of public art in American civilization. Among the goals of this first New Deal art agency, the PWAP, was to present to Depression-struck Americans works of art that reflected our history, our accomplishments, and our contemporary strengths.

One of the United States’ great strengths was the land, and agriculture and agricultural policy were among Roosevelt’s primary focuses for his New Deal. Of course, much of our land was under assault from the dust bowl, drought and flood, but Roosevelt’s goal was to remind Americans of the good things in their culture. The New Dealers were not very interested in images that referred to the difficulties of agricultural life, but wanted instead to emphasize its potential, promise, and its centrality to the good things in American life.

When Tillage Begins, Other Arts Follow is a four-panel mural cycle in the library of Iowa State University. Within this cycle are four distinct murals, all given specific titles and all designed by Wood, but carried out by the artists of the Iowa PWAP.

The introductory mural, installed on the first floor of the library is Breaking the Prairie. According to Wood’s original plans, this portion was to be a “pioneer plowing scene.” The title Breaking the Prairie, as far as can be determined, was given later on and may not have been provided by Wood.

In the overall scheme of the mural cycle, this depicts the first part of the title, When Tillage Begins. Breaking the virgin prairie for the first time is actually shown in the background of the picture while the foreground scene of the farmer and his wife depicts a later stage, after the earliest crops have been grown and harvested. The farmer is plowing a field that has already produced a crop, so it is possible that Wood placed this scene in the foreground because the phrase “when tillage begins” implies the development of the land, not just the initial breaking of the soil. He shows two stages in the early cultivation of the land of Iowa.

This theme of “when tillage begins” is also a basis for this university which used to be called Iowa State College of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts. It was the first land grant college to accept and apply the funding provided by the Morrill Act of 1862. One of the earliest buildings on our campus is Morrill Hall, named for this legislative act, and the home of the Christian Petersen Art Museum. The connection to the Morrill Act, signed by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, may be part of the reason Wood changed one of his woodchoppers from a generic young pioneer to a Lincolnesque figure. In his carefully executed study for this mural, the figure in the left side panel bears no resemblance to Lincoln. Though Breaking the Prairie is the first mural encountered in the cycle both narratively and physically, it was actually the last to be painted. There is reason to believe that Wood made minor changes to the study after the mural was actually installed in 1937; thus it has a date range of 1935-39.

The first group chronologically to be painted and installed in the library was Other Arts Follow, consisting of three murals painted in 1934, illustrating a later stage in history. In his scheme for the mural cycle, Wood established that the basis of everything in civilization was the land, its tillage and development. In the next stage, which was placed literally higher, along a stairwell, Wood presented endeavors that grew out of the land and which benefitted civilization; these were Other Arts Follow, including Agriculture, Engineering, and Home Economics.

The education of Iowa’s citizens has built on the legacy of the pioneers, recognizing the importance of education in the development of the state and the progress of its citizens, especially those engaged in agricultural and mechanical fields. Importantly, Wood also included a two-part panel showing the inclusion of woman (women were permitted to enroll at Iowa State from its very beginnings), particularly in the arts of home-making or, as it was then called, Home Economics.

The first mural to be painted was Agriculture, made up of three panels representing three departments within Iowa State College: Farm Crops, Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry. Engineering was the second of the three major subject areas of Iowa State College, in which Wood highlighted five divisions, as taught at Iowa State: mechanical, ceramic, aeronautical, chemical, and civil. Two panels on either side of the window represent the various arts and sciences which were then called Home Economics. In contrast to Agriculture and Engineering, Home Economics is not divided up into distinctive disciplines, even though that division at that time had several departments, such as Child Development, Food and Nutrition, Home Management, Textiles and Clothing, and Applied Arts. These two panels demonstrating the roles of women were the last to be painted among the stairwell murals and Wood gave only the title of Home Economics, without differentiating. However, it appears that we can identify the themes of the four scenes: reproduction and child care and development; food planning and preparation; house cleaning and hygiene; and design and production of clothing. In these three panels devoted to the education and research carried on at Iowa State, Wood departed from his usual subject matter of rural or small town life or American legends and myths (such as Midnight Ride of Paul Revere) and dealt with a theme that seldom enters his work: science and technology.

In his original plan for When Tillage Begins, Other Arts Follow, Wood advanced his theme to those arts that go beyond science and technology into the fine arts. On the second floor of the library, in a grand, spacious room, he hoped to paint the apex of civilization in representations of painting, theater, music, architecture, poetry and sculpture. Because of the end of Congressional funding for the PWAP and Wood’s own personal decisions, these extraordinary ideas were never carried out.

The second work of art produced in the Iowa PWAP was the seven-panel sculpted mural by Christian Petersen, The History of Dairying Petersen’s work is especially important because, partly as a result of his PWAP work, Petersen joined the staff at Iowa State as the first sculptor-in-residence at an American college in 1934 and from that time, helped begin the tradition that has led to Iowa State having the largest public art on campus collection in the United States. This is a legacy that has enriched not only this campus, but the cultural life of Iowa.

It was The History of Dairying that brought Petersen to Iowa State and was the work of art that introduced him to this community. It consists of a fountain, a pool and seven panels sculpted in low relief across the back wall of the Dairy Industry courtyard. It tells the history of dairying with three panels depicting traditional dairy methods and three on the opposite side of the fountain depicting the modern, up-to-date methods taught at Iowa State. In his sculptural installation, Petersen transformed a non-descript area at the back of the building into an environment of both aesthetics and education.

When we speak of “legacy,” we must also include the man who brought these works of art by Wood and Petersen to campus, Raymond M. Hughes, who was president of Iowa State College (1927-36) in the early days of the New Deal. Hughes believed that art was crucial in the education of students, and he was particularly concerned that Iowa State students would have unique and highly developed opportunities to live and study in an environment that valued beauty and artistic accomplishment. For their roles in a stable, enlightened civilization, he felt it was especially important for those studying agriculture, engineering and home economics to understand and value art.

Even before the PWAP began in December of 1933, Hughes had commissioned both Wood and Petersen for works of art for Iowa State. Documents in Hughes’s papers clearly indicate that he was determined to find the means to get both of these artists to create works of art for his campus. When the PWAP began, he recognized a funding opportunity and transferred both commissions to the New Deal art agency. Hughes was visionary in his ambitions for Iowa State, and he was unstoppable when it came to bringing art to this campus. If he had to write grants to the Carnegie and other foundations (which he did), if he had to work with New Deal art agencies (which he did), if he had to pay for some of it out of his own pocket (which he did in the case of Petersen), even if he had to cooperate at an unprecedented level with the University of Iowa (which he did), Hughes would have his art.

His goals were supported by two members of the Applied Arts department of the Home Economics division: Joanne Hansen (head of the department) and Zenobia Ness , an early Iowa art activist who was the supervisor of the state art exhibition at the Iowa State Fair and the curator for the annual exhibition held at the Iowa State Memorial Union.

The primary conduit for Hughes in bringing these two murals to campus was the PWAP, so we should now discuss that agency in greater detail. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 destroyed much of the American economy and, at its worst, left a fourth of working Americans unemployed.

Franklin Roosevelt was elected late in 1932 with the promise of a New Deal, which was his plan to alleviate the effects of the Great Depression. Among the remarkable things about this New Deal was that it not only concerned itself with material needs; it also tried to address issues of morale and of the enduring qualities that gave citizens pride and confidence in their own society. An old school friend (George Biddle) of Roosevelt’s wrote him soon after he moved into the White House suggesting that artists should be part of his efforts to improve life in the US. Artists were as hard-hit as any other segment of the population and they were in serious need of assistance. In addition, artists could actually contribute in the restoration of confidence by giving Americans depictions of their history, their contemporary strengths and their hopes for a more prosperous future. They could paint and sculpt these goals through their public art.

The first experiment in federal support for art was the Public Works of Art Project. The goal was to integrate artists into the efforts to re-invigorate the economy and to give Americans an idea of their own capacity to create “a finer American civilization.” One administrator explained the PWAP as follows: “It is our belief that the Project will rescue many artists...and will inspire them to create a record which will be of permanent value, of the American scene and of our American life today.... The artistic record of every country remains...the true measure of its civilization. We believe that the PWAP is not only a ‘putting to work’ plan, affecting an important class of citizens in great distress but it is a Governmental step forward, toward bringing about a finer American civilization.”

In a letter to artists hired by the PWAP, here is another New Dealer exhorting artists to do their very best. “I am sure that you are approaching the work with a feeling that we all have....that you are going to give to it the finest that is in you and help to make of this work not only a record of which our country may be proud but to sell to the American people the idea that art is and should be an integral part of our civilization. Under the guidance of our President we are setting a standard of civilization which, I think, is a little higher than anything we have had before....There are going to be scoffers and doubters and critics galore...who do not see it in its true significance or realize that the artistic of every country remains, in the last analysis, the true measure of its civilization.” Letters written by many of the Iowa PWAP artists make it clear that they embraced this ideal of doing their best, not just for themselves personally, but because it made life better for all Americans.

For the state of Iowa, Grant Wood was the director, and he developed a team of artists who he felt were best qualified to paint the murals for Iowa State. He hired Christian Petersen, not to work on the library murals, but to carry out the commission Petersen had already obtained from President Hughes.

The PWAP lasted only a little over four months and employed only about 30 Iowa artists. Each artist was paid about $25 a week and most of them did not work for the entire life of the Project. Most of the artists who produced work for Iowa State did, however, maintain their PWAP employment over the four months. A few of them even continued working after their funding was guaranteed, so sincere was their zeal to complete the art they had started.

Photographs of the time show a studio of hard work and cooperation, of comradery and constant effort. They show the clear chronology of the work. First was the painting of the mural, Agriculture. Wood designed the composition and then painted what PWAP artist Bertrand Adams called a ‘pilot sketch.” This oil sketch was used not just for the composition, but also as a guide to the exact colors Wood wanted throughout the murals. We know that Wood and possibly others produced dozens of drawings to support these PWAP murals projects, but unhappily, very few of them can be found today. We are fortunate in that we do have more drawings and studies, including sculpted models, for Petersen’s mural, The History of Dairying, and these are now in the collection of the University Museums.

We know that these Iowa PWAP artists, including those not in the Iowa City studio, created many works of art yet, a great many of them cannot be found today. What happened to all this art? For several of the artists, they produced entire mural cycles for the state of Iowa, but two of the largest were deliberately destroyed. Much has been lost. (At the time of this writing, it was assumed that the major mural cycle in the federal Court House at Cedar Rapids was destroyed, however, the City has funded a successful project to uncover these murals, hidden under layers of paint, and they have now been restored to the citizens of Iowa and to all Americans.)