''Ajax'' is an oil-on-canvas painting by the American artist

John Steuart Curry John Steuart Curry (November 14, 1897 – August 29, 1946) was an American painter whose career spanned the years from 1924 until his death. He was noted for his paintings depicting rural life in his home state, Kansas. Along with Thomas Hart B ...

, created in 1936–1937. It depicts a well-fed

Hereford Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With ...

bull with two

cowbird Cowbirds are birds belonging to the genus ''Molothrus'' in the family Icteridae. They are of New World origin, but some species not native to North America are invasive there, and are obligate brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of o ...

s on his back. The painting is on view at the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

, in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Creation

The painting was made with the intention to reassure Americans after the

Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of natural factors (severe drought) and hum ...

years. According to Curry's friend Reginald Marsh, it was really a self-portrait.

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 A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

with his 1948 painting ''John Steuart Curry and the University of Wisconsin Bull-Breeding Machine''.

Marianne Moore Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American Modernism, modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for its formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. In 1968 Nobel Prize in Li ...

mentions ''Ajax'' in her poem "The Buffalo".

References

External links

Presentation
at the museum's website 1937 paintings Animal paintings Cattle in art Paintings by John Steuart Curry Paintings in the Smithsonian American Art Museum Birds in art {{20C-painting-stub

Creation

Legacy

See also

References

External links