'Art U.S.A” Show at Jundt Art Museum Celebrates American Life ...

The images captured among the 100 works included in the new exhibition opening at Jundt Art Museum January 25 are as diverse as the artists who created them.

Landscapes spanning the United States from New York to San Francisco. Wartime imagery to quiet nature scenes. Colorful street life from the country's cities to bucolic imagery of livestock and harvest workers.

The objects in "Art U.S.A.: One Hundred Works on Paper, 1925-1950" are part of the permanent collection of the Jundt Art Museum at Gonzaga University. Collectively, they deliver a stunning expanse of American life from a group of artists that includes a significant number of immigrants, women and artists of color - all inspired by the tumultuous societal changes fueled by the Great Depression, World War II and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal initiatives that included significant investments in art programs.

"This display provides an opportunity to understand the art of the era in the context of life at the time," says Paul Manoguerra, director and curator of the Jundt Art Museum. "The works tend to represent the 'American Scene,' a countrywide affinity among artists at the time for images of everyday urban and rural life.

Manoguerra wrote a fully illustrated catalog of the exhibition that details the overarching story of "Art U.S.A." as well as providing detailed backgrounds on each piece. The book will sell for $50 and be available at the show's opening reception January 24 and throughout the show's run.

Some artists in the exhibit, including Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood, rose to national prominence through their keen understanding of rural culture. Artists of the era from the Northwest include Guy Anderson, Fay Chong, Z. Vanessa Helder, and Mark Tobey.

Thomas Hart Benton's "Loading Corn" (1945)

Another noteworthy inclusion is artist Fletcher Martin, whose mural is featured in the Kellogg, Idaho, post office to this day. What Kellogg locals and visitors might not know is that the mural on display for nearly a century wasn't Martin's original submission. "Mine Rescue," his entry of an injured miner being stretchered out of a mine, was accepted by the Treasury Department but rejected by the Kellogg community at the time, and found itself instead eventually housed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

Fletcher's "Mine Rescue" will be part of a special display with the "Art U.S.A." show through a loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), arriving on the Gonzaga campus shortly before the "Art U.S.A." opening.

"A generous loan from a national museum like the SAAM to our small, academic art museum at Gonzaga represents a recognition of the importance of the exhibitions and educational opportunities at the Jundt, especially in 'Art U.S.A.'" Manoguerra says. "The loan also brings Martin's original design for the Kellogg mural to the Inland Northwest for the very first time."

The Martin piece from the Smithsonian is sure to be just one highlight in a show full of them.

"'Art U.S.A' is a big city, big museum-type exhibition instead organized here and on display here in Spokane on Gonzaga's campus," Manoguerra says. "The show provides 100 anecdotal examples of life in the 1930s and 1940s in the United States and, collectively, tells an overall story of our shared American history."

"Art U.S.A.: One Hundred American Works on Paper, 1925-1950" from the permanent collection of the Jundt Art Museum at Gonzaga University will run Jan. 25-May 10, 2025, in the Jundt Galleries and Arcade Galleries. Jundt Art Musuem is located at 200 E. Desmet Ave. in Spokane, and is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday, closed university holidays. Admission is free. There is an opening reception on Friday, Jan. 24, from 4-7 p.m.

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