The Grant Wood Window: Drawings for the Veterans Memorial Stained Glass Window Commission

June 19 - November 14, 2010

Grant Wood, Study for the American Revolutionary Soldier, 1928, ink, pencil, pastel, and watercolor on paper, 96 1/2 x 42 1/2 in. Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, on loan from the Veterans Memorial Coliseum Commission, L1973.6.

In conjunction with the reinstallation of the restored historic window designed by Grant Wood for the Veterans Memorial Building on May’s Island, the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art will display for the first time the complete set of original drawings used for the fabrication of the window. On permanent loan from the Veterans Memorial Coliseum Commission, these actual sized drawings, when assembled, measure the same size as the window—a massive 24 feet high by 20 feet wide—making them Grant Wood’s largest drawing. Dominated by a female figure representing victory and accompanied by six soldiers, one from each of America’s wars, this 1928 project eventually took Wood and his drawings to Munich, Germany, to oversee the window’s fabrication. It was in Germany that Wood saw northern Renaissance paintings which had a profound effect on his painting, ultimately giving birth to his Regionalist style.

This exhibition is supported in part by the Richard D. Pinney Exhibition Fund and the Momentum Fund of The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation.

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