Here’s how Cedar Rapids schools came to own Grant Wood, other known artists, work

CEDAR RAPIDS — As a teacher at McKinley Junior High in Cedar Rapids in the 1920s, Grant Wood — an artist known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest — created a bench for misbehaving students to sit outside the principal’s office.

The bench — intended as a humorous take on a traditional church mourner’s bench — is carved with the phrase “The way of the transgressor is hard.”

“It’s my understanding it was well used,” said Sean Ulmer, executive director of the Museum of Art where the bench is on loan from the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

“I always thought it was clever and witty,” said Ranelle Knight-Lueth, who is working at the University of Iowa creating the first all encompassing inventory called a catalogue raisonné of Grant Wood’s artwork.

The bench and other Grant Wood’s artwork is owned by the Cedar Rapids Community School District, where he was first a student graduating from old Washington High School in 1910 and later a teacher as he worked toward becoming a full-time artist.

One of the more iconic Grant Wood paintings owned by the school district is “Young Corn,” a landscape painting from 1931. It is currently on loan to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, which stores and displays a lot of artwork by Grant Wood and other artists owned by the Cedar Rapids district.

“I think it is fairly unusual for school districts to possess original works of art,” Ulmer said. “It’s a testament to the leadership in the Cedar Rapids school district in valuing works of art and amassing this collection. A lot of it was donated from previous students who really understood what it meant to have original works of art in the school.”

How did Cedar Rapids schools begin acquiring art?

The Cedar Rapids district owns about 500 works of art. A lot of the artwork in addition to Grant Wood’s work are photographs by Carl Van Vechten, an artist born in Cedar Rapids known championing Black artists during the Harlem Renaissance.

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“It’s such a fun responsibility to have this huge collection that’s so unique to the district. It’s in our buildings, and our kids are learning around this artwork every day. Unfortunately, some of us in these buildings don’t realize what we’re surrounded by,” said Kristina Dvorak, the art collection coordinator for the Cedar Rapids district.

Artwork like Van Vechten’s that’s more valuable or fragile is at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. Other artwork is on display at 21 of the district’s buildings. A majority of it is at Franklin Middle School, McKinley STEAM Academy — a middle school — and Washington High School.

Other notable artists whose artwork is owned by the Cedar Rapids district are

Franklin Middle School has the most artwork displayed with 23 pieces. Washington High has 21 works of art and McKinley has 15 on display. More artwork is on display in a gallery at the Educational Leadership and Support Center.

“It comes down to the history of the building,” Dvorak said. “McKinley has a lot because that’s where Grant Wood taught.”

When old Washington High School closed in 1935, much of the artwork there was moved to Franklin, Dvorak said.

Some artwork over the years has specifically been donated to the current Washington High School and the Grant Wood Gallery created there.

Students at Franklin and McKinley in the Program for Academic and Creative Talent — an educational program for high ability students — last year filmed tours of the schools, talking about the artwork and even the architecture of the building, Dvorak said.

The artwork is carefully preserved.

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Renate Bernstein, a former teacher librarian and member of the Cedar Rapids district’s six-member art collections committee, said she plans to build a catalog — available to the public — of all the artwork owned by the district.

Bernstein also played a key role in facilitating loans from the school’s holdings to the Whitney Museum of American Art for its 2018 exhibition, “Grant Wood: American Gothic and Other Fables.”

Leon Lueck is a former teacher at Franklin Middle School who now volunteers to maintain artwork in the building.

Lueck ensures damaged frames are repaired, artwork is installed high enough to be out of student’s reach and more fragile or valuable artwork is secured in plexiglass.

“We’ve never had a piece of artwork destroyed in my years of volunteering. It’s a real credit to the students,” said Lueck, who has been volunteering since he retired in 2008.

Acquiring new artwork

In July, the Cedar Rapids school board approved a donation of 19 Grant Wood lithographs, one Grant Wood cartoon titled “Adolescent,” one Grant Wood painting, two John Steuart Curry lithographs, one William Gropper lithograph, and four Thomas Hart Benton lithographs.

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The gift was from the estate Suzanne Timble and came with a request that the “Adolescent” cartoon be maintained at Franklin Middle School.

Dvorak said the Timble family was connected to Frances Prescott, the first principal at McKinley Junior High who hired Grant Wood as a teacher.

Cataloging Grant Wood’s works

The University of Iowa’s Grant Wood catalogue raisonné team recently visited Washington High’s gallery to explore Grant Wood’s early artwork when he was a student in contributions to the school’s “Pulse” magazine and “The Reveille” yearbook.

Copies of the magazine and yearbook dating back to 1907 include cover art, in-text illustrations and graphic headings by Grant Wood. It shows how he experimented with signature styles and integrating his initials — G.D.W. — into his work, Knight-Lueth said.

Knight-Lueth said many artists have catalogue raisonné — an inventory of an artist’s body of work. The project she is managing through the University of Iowa will be the first all encompassing catalogue raisonné for Grant Wood.

It’s “quite the undertaking,” she said. “It’s imperative that we do it. If we don’t do it, we run the risk of losing valuable information as time progresses.”

The project is halfway through a three-year $300,000 grant from the Carver Family Trust. Knight-Lueth said projects like this typically take 10 years or more to complete, and they are looking for additional funding, including grants and private donations.

The information eventually will be made public through an online database.

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“It’s a cultural history, an artistic history. People probably know of ‘American Gothic’ — one of the most recognizable, parodied paintings in the world — They may not know the artists name. They may not know he worked in schools and other parts of Iowa. This important cultural history needs to be brought to the forefront and preserved to make Grant Wood’s legacy lasting,” Knight-Lueth said.

Knight-Lueth said the reason they “are several decades behind” in creating a catalogue raisonné for Grant Wood is because it is historically done for artists by their family or artist foundation, which was created fairly recently for Grant Wood.

Knight-Lueth said about once a week, she receives a message from private collectors saying they think they have a Grant Wood artwork.

“Working with the Cedar Rapids Community School District and Washington High School in particular has been ideal for the Grant Wood Catalogue Raisonné project,” Knight-Lueth said. “We knew of Wood’s early work as a high school student, but it has been incredibly beneficial to research these materials in person. But, it goes beyond the works of art, archives, and objects; it’s getting to know the people who have a vested interest in Wood and his art.”

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com