Sanctuary

Art Historical Context

**Sanctuary** (1944) by John Steuart Curry captures the raw drama of rural America through a poignant graphic arts print, now housed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Curry, a leading figure in the American Regionalist movement alongside artists like Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, celebrated the heartland's people and landscapes with bold, narrative-driven works. Created during World War II, this piece shifts focus from global conflict to timeless struggles against nature, evoking the Midwestern floods that haunted Curry's Kansas roots and inspired much of his oeuvre. The compositio...