Ajax (painting)

Ajax is a 1936–37 painting by the American artist John Steuart Curry. It depicts a well-fed Hereford bull with two cowbirds on his back. The painting is on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.[1]

Ajax
ArtistJohn Steuart Curry
Year1936–37
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions92 cm × 122.5 cm (36​1⁄4 in × 48​1⁄4 in)
LocationSmithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

Creation

The painting was made with the intention to reassure Americans after the Dust Bowl years.[1] According to Curry's friend Reginald Marsh, it was really a self-portrait.[2]

Legacy

Curry featured Ajax the bull in several of his works, such as the mural Kansas Pastoral. The subject also became a target for mockery among those who opposed regionalist painting and considered it superficial. The satirist Marshall Glasier mocked both Ajax and Curry's position at the University of Wisconsin with his 1948 painting John Steuart Curry and the University of Wisconsin Bull-Breeding Machine.[3]

Marianne Moore mentions Ajax in her poem "The Buffalo".[4]

References
  1. "Ajax". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 2017-09-13.
  2. John Steuart Curry: Inventing the Middle West. Hudson Hills. 1998. p. 105. ISBN 9781555951399.
  3. Got Cow?: Cattle in American Art 1820-2000. Hudson River Museum. 2006. p. 12–13. ISBN 9780943651323.
  4. Moore, Marianne (1994). Complete Poems. Penguin Books. p. 27. ISBN 9781101127476.
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