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Thursday, Oct, 1, 1970
University Daily Kansan
John Steuart Curry Exhibition Opens Friday in State Capitol
A preview showing for patrons and benefactors of the museum of art will open an exhibit of works by John Steuart Curry in the state capitol.
Bret Waller, director of the museum, has organized the exhibition of about 59 Curry paintings in cooperation with the Kansas Cultural Arts Commission. He said the exhibit would open Oct. 2 with the preview showing and be open to the public Oct. 3-Nov. 2.
The show will be in the rotunda of the capitol where, in 1941, Curry left unsigned the completed portions of the murals he had been commissioned to paint for the building.
The show will temporarily cover the marble that the legislature refused to remove from the rotunda where the mural's remaining portions were to be installed.
The legislature's action in refusing to let Curry finish the murals came at the urging of the Kansas Council of Women. He left his work uncompleted when the women said the marble, imported from Siena in Italy, was worth ten dollars a square foot. Curry replied that more people probably would come to see the murals than to see the marble.
Lenders for the exhibit include the St. Louis City Art Museum, the Whitney Museum and the Chicago Art Institute.
Harry S. Parker III, vice-director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, will be the speaker at the dinner after the preview opening.
Curry's murals in Topeka are probably his best-known works. In spite of the controversy surrounding them, he was proud of the work and once referred to them as "the greatest painting I have vet done."
In addition to the murals, works in the show will include "Baptism in Kansas" and "Wisconsin Landscape."
When "Baptism in Kansas" was first shown in 1930, a New York Times critic said, "Kansas has found her Homer." "Wisconsin Landscape" received first award in the "Artists for Victory" exhibition at the Metropolitan.
In August, the Kansas Quarterly, edited at Kansas State University, published a special issue devoted to Curry. The issue has been expanded to serve as the exhibition catalog. Waller said the catalog was the most extensive publication on Curry since "John Steuart Curry's Pageant of America" by Lawrence Schmeckebier was published in 1943.
Curry was born on a farm near Dunavant in 1897 and spent his early years in Kansas. In 1916 he attended the Kansas City Art Institute for a short time and then spent two years at the Chicago Art Institute.
For seven years, Curry was a free-lance illustrator for such publications as Boy's Life, Saturday Evening Post and Country Gentleman.
Dissatisfied with the artistic restrictions placed on illustrators, Curry went to Paris in 1926 to study the works of the old masters and to improve his draftmanship.
"Baptism in Kansas" was finished in 1928 and brought Curry his first public recognition as an artist.
In the early 1930's, Curry received national recognition as one member of the "Regionalist Triumvirate"—Curry of Kansas, Grant Wood of Iowa and Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. In 1936, Curry was the first institution to receive an appointment as artist-in-reserve at the University of Wisconsin.
He worked on the Kansas Statehouse murals from 1938 to 1941.
Wescoe Hall Takes Shape...
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help pay for it. The delay means that students who are freshmen or sophomores this year will have to pay the fee. The fee will be charged until the bonds are paid for, Balfour said, which should take 20 to 25 years.
The hall has been in the planning stage since 1963, according to Von Ende. He said the original plans called for a 26-story tower with two five-story wings.
Housing Breakthrough
By NORMAN KEMPSTER
UPI Writer
WASHINGTON — A government effort to find ways to cut the cost of building houses has run up against what could be a serious psychological barrier—many individuals think the product will be "poor people's housing."
The label must be distressing to Housing and Urban Development Secretary George Romney. It was Romney who devised "Operation Breakthrough" as an experiment aimed at cutting the housing costs of everyone, the affluent as well as the poor.
Romney has gone out of his way to explain that homes produced under the project will be suitable for a variety of income groups.
But the "poor people's" label, justified or not, apparently is hard to dislodge.
In several of the 10 cities selected for operation breakthrough prototype developments, opposition has been generated by persons who fear the project will attract the same clientele as public housing.
Operation Breakthrough is near the top of HUD's priority list. It is intended to demonstrate the use of industrial techniques—prefabrication of components and complete "modules"—as alternatives to the 19th century hammer-and-nail method of building homes.
Romney, former head of American Motors, likes to remind listeners that his auto firm popularized the "compact" car by making it clear the auto was for people who could afford more but preferred to save money.
Balfour said the bids for the 26-story plan were too far over the University budget. In attempts to cut costs on the building, the tower was first trimmed to 20 stories and then 15. The cost of construction was still too high, Von Ende said, and the building was re-designed as three five-story wings with provision for having additional floors built on the middle wing when funds became available.
But this plan was still too costly and the tower idea was abandoned. New plans, those being finalized now, call for a four-story structure with a basement that would open to the drive behind Hoch Auditorium. The existing plans, Von Ende said, have been budgeted $8 million.
Of this amount, $2.5 million will come from student fees and the other $5.5 million will come from state and federal funds.
Balfour said that students in other schools had helped pay for academic buildings. He cited Fort Hays State College as an example of a Kansas school that has done so. He said students there voted last year to help pay for a new physical education building.
When the Student Senate was debating the plan last year some senators opposed the idea of students paying for academic buildings. Balfour said the Board of Regents would discuss this issue
Homecoming Gets Subsidy From Alums
The director said that in past years homecoming had been financed through the use of student activity fees, but this year the Student Senate had denied the request for homecoming funds
The Alumni Association will underwrite homecoming expenses this year, according to Dick Wintermute, executive director of the association.
in their October meeting.
The regents have taken the position that students should pay for 25 per cent of the cost of their education. Von Ende said that the cost increased each semester by approximately $10.
Wintermote said the association would provide up to $1,500 to cover expenses, including advertising and printing costs. The funding is for this year only, Wintermote said and cannot be considered a commitment for the future.
But instead of raising fees $10 every semester, Von Ende said, the regents have raised the fees $60 every three years. The increase in fees this year over those paid last year, he said, are only for operation of the University because of the increasing costs.
Balfour said fees for the new hospital would begin about one year after those for Wescoe Hall and would also affect only students who would use the hospital.
Band Day Events Set
Student fees for the hospital, Von Ende said, will be about $5.50 per semester, $3 less than was originally planned. He explained that the $10 fee the Student Senate approved last year was only a ceiling on students fees for the hospital.
Seventy-seven high school bands, 7,100 persons, are expected at the University of Kansas, Saturday, Oct. 3, for Band Day.
The KU Jayhawk Marching Band will lead a parade from the corner of 7th and Massachusetts streets to South Park, between 12th and 13th streets on Massachusetts.
After the parade the bands will move to the football field
where they will practice for the half-time ceremonies.
The pre-game ceremony for the Kansas-New Mexico game will be handled by the KU Jayhawk Marching Band. At halftime the high school bands will form "KU 70" on the field and will play "God of Our Fathers." "Prayer of Thanksgiving." "Hymn of All Nations" and Halleluja Chorus."