Wanda Corn at the Figge Art Museum -- November 19.
Thursday, November 19, 6 p.m.
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
Speaking about and signing copies of her new book The Couple with the Pitchfork: American Gothic from Easel to Icon, renowned American-art and cultural historian Wanda Corn makes a special appearance at Davenport's Figge Art Museum on November 19, the event also featuring Dr. Ranelle Knight-Lueth, director of the Grant Wood Catalogue Raisonné project.
Wanda Corn is primarily a scholar of art and photography from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. She is the Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor emerita of art history at Stanford University. She held the professorship for eight years before retiring from the university in March 2017. Over her career as an art professor at Stanford she brought John D. Rockefeller's personal collection to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which included a "a body of 110 paintings described as the museums’ “single most important gift of art." Corn served as acting director of the Stanford Art Museum now known as the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts. Prior to her position at Stanford she held the Samuel H. Kress Professorship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, at the National Gallery of Art from 2006 to 2007.
Over the years, Corn has received many awards and honors for her research, including the 2014 Distinguished Scholar Award from the College Arts Association. In 2003-2004 she received a fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, where she pursued research on Gertrude Stein and the Making of the Modern. Corn received the Archives of American Art's Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Field of American Art History. In 2007 she received the Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award as well as the College Arts Association Distinguished Teaching of Art History Award. She received a fellowship at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in 2010; and a fellowship from the Georgia O'Keeffe Research Center in 2013. On May 28, 2017, she received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, for her contributions to art. In 2018, Corn was winner of the 2018 Dedalus Foundation Exhibition Catalogue Award.
At its November 19 event, the Figge will also welcome Dr. Ranelle Knight-Lueth, Director of the Grant Wood Catalogue Raisonné. This project is a research initiative led by the University of Iowa’s Grant Wood Art Colony to create the first comprehensive, searchable record of the artwork of Iowa artist Grant Wood. The project documents his paintings, drawings, prints, murals and other works, including their histories, ownership, exhibitions and authenticity. Its goal is to preserve Wood’s artistic legacy, support scholarly research and make information about his work accessible to museums, researchers and the public.
The Wanda Corn presentation and book signing will take place in the Figge's second-floor John Deere Auditorium on November 19, with the program starting at 6 p.m. and the Figge Bar open from 4 to 7 p.m. (cards only). Participation in the evening event is free, and more information is available by calling (563)326-7804 and visiting FiggeArtMuseum.org.
