About This Exhibition

Every work of art has a story to tell.

When John Steuart Curry was growing up in on his family farm near Dunavant, Kansas, he would often wander into the high fields of corn. “I remember,” he wrote, “wandering through them and being over-powered by the fear of being  lost in their green confines.”

At 35 years of age, Curry returned to those fields to capture in his work the same sense of drama he felt, “beneath our windblown Kansas skies.” For Curry, Kansas Cornfield represented the story of his youth on a Kansas farm.

When Curry’s Kansas Cornfield entered WAM’s permanent collection, a new chapter in its tale was written and a new story began. The work was the first painting collected by the Wichita Art Museum. As the foundational work of art for the new museum, the painting came to symbolize WAM’s commitment to both the highest caliber American art and to Kansas audiences.

Today, Kansas Cornfield has become a part of many visitors’ personal stories. Brett Zongker, an Associated Press journalist based in Washington D.C., recently featured the painting on his popular Twitter feed. As a self-described “son of Kansas,” the painting represents home to Zongker.

Museums, by their very nature, are repositories of incredible stories. The Wichita Art Museum has introduced its visitors to the best American artwork and has been a part of thousands of engaging stories. In celebration of the museum’s 80th anniversary in 2015, Storytelling, underwent a reinstallation of the permanent collection, celebrating the histories, mysteries, and anecdotes that make the Wichita Art Museum collection unlike any other.

Each and every one of WAM’s objects has a story to tell. What influenced its creation? Who is pictured? How did the work come to Wichita? Storytelling invites visitors to take another look at familiar favorites from the collection as well as important works that have been off view for many years. We hope that the artworks inspire a meaningful encounter with the past, one that is relevant to everyone’s personal story today.

A mature corn stalk stands in front of a field of corn.

John Steuart Curry, Kansas Cornfield, 1933. Oil on canvas, 60 3/8 x 38 3/8 inches. Wichita Art Museum, Roland P. Murdock Collection