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Detail from "The Homesteading and the Building of Barbed Wire Fences," by John Steuart Curry, oil on canvas, 1939. Born in Dunavant, Kansas in 1987, Regionalist painter John Steuart Curry chose to focus his work on familiar American landscapes. "The Homesteading and the Building of Barbed Wire Fences" focuses on the privatization of western lands. The industrious and self-sufficient farmer protects his land with barbed wire, taming the land by removing sod and planting crops. The ominous clouds represent the catastrophic times to come. Extensive farming, severe drought, and high winds would eventually cause the Dust Bowl.

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