A Window into Grant Wood Window

The sketches and sketchbook of Grant Wood's large peace window installed in 1929 at the Veterans Memorial Buildling on May's Island in Cedar Rapids provide wonderful insight into the artists thought process.

The full-size sketch of the window -- 24 feet tall and 20-feet wide, the size of a normal two-stall garage -- will be on display at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art beginning June 19. (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette.)

Sean Ulmer, curator at the museum, showed me gallery No. 16 where it will be displayed and explained that it's unusual to display a piece of work on the floor.

But, in this case he didn't have much choice since the gallery's walls are only 111 inches tall.

The museum, which has been the caretaker of the sketches, in 58 panels just like the window, since the 1970s, also wanted to put it all together for the first time since Wood, himself, reportedly assemble the sketches in an auditorium at Quaker Oats.

It was there, at Quaker Oats, that he found models for the six soldiers representing the six wars the United States had fought in up to that time, from the Revolutionary War to The Great War. (It wasn't called World War I until World War II came along.)

The great thing about this exhibit, however, is a sketch book borrowed and photographed from a collector on the East Coast.

The pages of the book, which will be shown on a power point presentation on a TV screen during the exhibit, show just what the artist had going through his mind as he developed the concept for the window.

Neither the original huge sketches or the sketch book are in great shape. But, to people who study and appreciate Grant Wood they're invaluable.

"This did what it was supposed to do," Sean says about the life-size sketch. "We're lucky it does survive. It shows Grant Wood working through his biggest commission. When it's together it will be amazing to see."

The exhibit coincides with the planned dedication of the rebuilt window, damaged in the Flood of 2008, which is to take place the afternoon of July 4 on the final day of this year's Freedom Festival.

The exhibit will run through November 14 to encompass Veterans Day which is Nov. 11.

For more information about the sketches at the Museum of Art, click here.