Curated by Jenny McComas, Curator of European and American Art, Eskenazi Museum of Art
Stuart Davis's 1938 mural Swing Landscape, a work familiar to many Eskenazi Museum of Art visitors, is considered one of the most important American paintings of the twentieth century. Commissioned through the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration, the mural was originally slated for installation in the Williamsburg Housing Project in Brooklyn, New York. Ultimately rejected from this site, it instead came to Indiana University in early 1942. The exhibition will offer a comprehensive examination of this modern masterpiece, presenting new research into Swing Landscape's aesthetic, political, and social significance; situating it within the broader context of abstract murals in the Depression era; and offering new insights into its rejection from the Williamsburg Housing Project. The exhibition will feature loans from museums such as MoMA and the Art Institute of Chicago, and will be accompanied by a major catalogue, published by Yale University Press.
The exhibition is supported by Indiana University's New Frontiers in the Arts & Humanities Program, the Art Dealers Association of America Foundation, the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, the Terra Foundation for American Art, Susan Thrasher, David Jacobs, Ann Sanderson, and Paula Sunderman.
