Grant Wood, March, 1939, lithograph. Museum purchase with funds from Lucie G. Nelson '77 PhD, 2019.17.2.

In the American Grain: Exploring America through Art, 1919鈥�1946

Thursday, September 4鈥揝aturday, December 6, 2025

Opening reception: Thursday, September 4, 5:00-7:00 pm.

The 哔咔漫画 Art Museum presents In the American Grain: Exploring America through Art, 1919鈥�1946, on view Thursday, September 4 through Saturday, December 6, 2025. The two-and-a-half decades between 1919 and 1946 witnessed the development of an American art that sought to capture a country in the midst of transformation. Through celebration and crisis, artists held up a mirror to their fellow citizens, showing their lives, their landscapes and their dreams. In the American Grain tells this story through artworks addressing a range of themes, drawn from the rich holdings of the 哔咔漫画 Art Museum and Libraries, the Roberson Museum and Science Center and the Art Bridges Collection. In particular, the exhibition acknowledges the generosity of Gil and Deborah Williams, whose donations to the Art Museum are extensively featured here. Together, they reveal how history shaped art during these years, and how artists themselves responded to history in the making. This exhibition is curated by Tom McDonough, professor of art history. Support for this project is provided by Art Bridges.

Also opening in the Museum鈥檚 Lower Galleries are three exhibitions curated by students: Superposition: Examine Boundaries in East Asian Religious Art curated by Kate Langsdorf 鈥�25; The Visual Language of Grief curated by Molly Rudden 鈥�25; and Destabilizing 鈥渢he Brain鈥�: Imagining 哔咔漫画 curated by Bassie Chin 鈥�26.

For details on upcoming programming, see our 鈥淓vents鈥� page and . All events are free and open to the public.