Conference Art Gallery - OEFFA Conference

During this year’s conference, you can search the following paintings for passcodes you can use to win points in the Quest 4 Points game! Enter the passcodes you find into the game and compete for one of five $100 gift certificates to Eban’s Bakehouse!

These paintings were created by artists commonly associated with American Regionalism. While some critics refer to it as a reactionary movement responding to emerging trends in modern art, it was more likely a response to the Great Depression, artists painting subjects close to home in an authentic, sometimes nostalgic manner.

**Molly Luce** (American, 1896-1986)
*Harvest Outing in Summer*, 1929

Born in Pittsburgh, Molly Luce often summered with her grandparents in Kingsville, Ohio. Her paintings were often portrayals of rural life on farms or in fishing communities.

**Thomas Hart Benton** (American, 1889-1975)
*Noon*, 1939

Though born the son of a prominent Missouri lawyer, Thomas Hart Benton was drawn to the land and those who toiled upon it. His work showed not only the charms of American life, but the many challenges Americans faced. As the best known of the regionalists, Benton enjoyed a long and successful career as a painter, muralist, and teacher.

**Grant Wood** (American, 1891-1942)
*Young Corn*, 1931

While American Gothic is by far Grant Wood’s most recognized work, he often painted idyllic representations of farm life. Adept in lithography, metal work, and jewelry design, Wood explored many forms of art before returning to what inspired him the most, the family farm of his youth in Anamosa, Iowa. He drew on his memories to portray an America free of the Great Depression and the threats of foreign dictators.

Hale Woodruff was born in Illinois, but grew up a black man in segregated Nashville, Tennessee. Despite many obstacles, his talents eventually garnered him an award that led him to study art in Paris for 4 years. Upon his return to the United States, he began teaching at several predominately black colleges in Atlanta and painting murals that often portrayed the plight of African Americans during the Great Depression.

**Aaron Pyle** (American, 1903-1972)
*Wheat Harvest*, 1968

Who better to paint scenes of rural life than an artist who was also a farmer? In fact, Aaron Pyle’s paintbrushes didn’t come out until the days work on the farm was done. Pyle lived most of his life in Chappell, Nebraska but ventured to Kansas City for college where he was a student of Thomas Hart Benton.