The Progressive Context of the Nebraska Capitol the Collaboration of Goodhue and Tack

University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

1995

THE PROGRESSIVE CONTEXT OF THE NEBRASKA CAPITOL THE COLLABORATION OF GOODHUE AND TACK

Frederick C. Luebke University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected]

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Luebke, Frederick C., "THE PROGRESSIVE CONTEXT OF THE NEBRASKA CAPITOL THE COLLABORATION OF GOODHUE AND TACK" (1995). Great Plains Quarterly. 993. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/993

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. THE PROGRESSIVE CONTEXT OF THE NEBRASKA CAPITOL THE COLLABORATION OF GOODHUE AND TACK

FREDERICK C. LUEBKE

Augustus Vincent Tack (1870-1949) was the first of eight artists who executed murals in the Nebraska state capitol.l His involvement began in fall 1923, when he was asked by the architect, Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue (1869- 1924), to plan a program of mural decora tions for the governor's suite of offices, located in the first part of the capitol to be com pleted. His murals were installed four years later, and the rooms were opened to the pub lic on 1 January 1928. Tack's work was thus conceived, executed, and installed several years before the construction of the capitol

Frederick C. Luebke is Charles J. Mach Professor of FIG. 1. Augustus Vincent Tack painted this Self History Emeritus, at the University of Nebraska Portrait sometime in the 1940s, nearly twenty years Lincoln. His many publications include A Harmony after his engagement as a muralist for the Nebraska of the Arts: The Nebraska State Capitol (1990) State Capitol. It is unique in that it personalizes his and Nebraska: An Illustrated History (1995). self-portraiture with a background done in his distinctive "abstract-expressionist" technique. Courtesy The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

[GPQ 15 (Fall 1995}: 227-45]

227 228 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1995 was completed in 1932. At first glance, the law, railroad regulation, a child labor law, a Tack murals, with their late medieval feeling, board of pardons, a bank guaranty law, and may seem archaic and perhaps lacking con the nonpartisan election of judges. A few years gruence with the spirit of the building. Fur later Nebraska adopted both women's suffrage ther investigation, however, reveals them to and the prohibition of alcoholic beverages. be in perfect harmony with the architect's in Although many historians have argued that tentions. the Progressive movement ended with World Although Tack's work is not well known, War I, it continued in Nebraska into the post art historians have been intrigued by his aes war period, when in 1920 the state modern thetic sensibilities. How could this artist pro ized its constitution in conformance with duce work so radically different in spirit and Progressive principles. By any measure, it was manner as his Nebraska murals and the fasci a time of remarkable political energy for Ne nating abstractions in the Phillips Gallery in braska. Washington, and moreover, do it at the same But the Progressive movement was much time?2 (Cf. Fig. 5 and 7.) The easy answer is more than a series of political reforms. It was a that he needed the money. Commissions for frame of mind, a set of ideals and moral atti such work as the murals, like his portraiture of tudes that conditioned habits of thought the rich and famous, paid well and helped to among American leaders, political and other sustain the opulent lifestyle to which he was wise. It was a hopeful time when Americans accustomed. thought that peace, justice, and righteousness But we must probe deeper. I suggest that a could be realized as never before, a time when part of the answer-and I do not wish to claim they optimistically believed that practical ide too much-can be found by considering the alism and applied Christianity could remake spirit of the times in which he lived. Of course, society. The Progressive mentality influenced Tack's lifetime as an artist bridged several pe much intellectual activity: the social sciences riods-from the fin de siecle to the horrific years were profoundly affected, and so was the world of the Second World War and its immediate of art-literature, music, painting, and archi aftermath. But the time that concerns us most tecture-though less obviously. is the Progressive era-the decade that pre Robert Crunden, a leading student of ceded the First World War and whose influ American culture in the Progressive Era, pro ence arguably extended into the 1920s when vides a key to understanding the American Tack did his Nebraska murals. artist in those years. The typical writer, com Most Americans will readily identify the poser, painter, or architect, Crunden tells us, Progressive Era as a period of positive reform felt a keen tension between innovation and early in the twentieth century when large doses nostalgia. Such a person of democracy were administered to the body politic to cure its ills. The wholesale adoption was full of new ideas about religious and of remedial devices such as the initiative, ref political life ... [and] at the same time, like erendum, and recall spring to mind, as do pri progressives in other disciplines, he [sic] had mary elections, municipal reforms, direct a nostalgia for the past: for the small town, election of U.S. senators, the income tax, for religious certainty, for the morality of women's suffrage, the Federal Reserve system his parents, and for the America that al of banking, anti-trust legislation, pure food ways seemed to exist about the time he was and drug legislation, and so on. born. This tension between old and new The wave of Progressive reform hit Ne helped generate art, but it also made that braska in 1907. First a Republican and then a art confusing and contradictory. Most of Democratic legislature enacted much Progres ten, the new ideas found themselves in sive legislation, including a primary election works of art that were based on traditional THE NEBRASKA CAPITOL 229

forms, as if the comfort of old forms took seven weeks of his inauguration, Governor the sting out of the threat of new ideas .... McKelvie happily signed a bill to create a com But with the greatest artists, innovation and mission for the planning and construction of nostalgia fused to create works ... which this grand enterprise.s remain the chief monuments of progressive The newly appointed commissioners creativity.3 quickly engaged the services of a professional advisor, Thomas R. Kimball of Omaha, a dis Here Crunden has in mind such painters as tinguished architect then serving as president Robert Henri, William Glackens, John Sloan, of the American Institute of Architects.6 in music the sui generis Charles I ves, and in Kimball led the commissioners to approve a architecture the American genius, Frank Lloyd procedure that would attract submissions from Wright. Although much Progressive accom the finest architectural firms in the United plishment in the arts has the appearance of States. In January 1920 the commission issued modern, we must not think of these artists as its program statement, a document that fused Modernists. Crunden reminds us that Mod innovation with nostalgic sentiment. Unlike ernism, a far more creative movement that most competitions for such public buildings was well advanced in Europe at the time, is erected in those years, it offered no directives what killed Progressivism in the arts. Euro governing plan, style, or materials. By grant pean Modernists stressed "form over content, ing so much freedom, the commission intended the lack of responsibility of the artist to soci to stimulate innovation among the competi ety, the simultaneity of past and present time, tors. As one architectural historian describes and the expression of three dimensions in two." it, the terms of the competition were "an artist's But Progressive artists were of a different spirit. dream."7 They rejected, sometimes vehemently, the At the same time, the commissioners were Modernist notion of "art for art's sake." In keenly sensitive to the symbolism Nebraskans their view, art was associated with human feel would assign to the new statehouse. Using lan ing; art and life could not be separated. Un guage enriched by Progressive accents, they like the Modernists, preeminent Progressive declared that the structure would express the artists such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles people's respect for the state's traditions and Ives were, in Crunden's words, "deeply in "their belief in [Nebraska's] importance and volved in family ideals .... Their central aes worth, and their love of its fair name." The thetic concern was with nature, and they commissioners called for "an inspiring monu remained ever conscious that nature was an ment worthy of the state for which it stands; a expression of God."4 thing of beauty so conceived and fashioned to In Nebraska the Progressive mentality con properly record and exploit our civilization, tinued strongly at the end of World War I in aspirations and patriotism, past, present, and November 1918. Just a week before the Armi future."8 stice, citizens swept the Democrats from the As Kimball hoped, the Nebraska compe statehouse and elected Progressive-minded tition stimulated nationwide attention. Ac Republicans to state government. The new cording to one prestigious architectural governor was Samuel R. McKelvie. This young, journal, it was "an interesting moment in aggressive, thirty-seven-year-old publisher of American architecture" that marked a radical The Nebraska Farmer was a classic Progressive departure "from the established precedent for eager for political reform. When McKelvie and state capitols."9 Among the finalists were some other public figures urged that the state erect of the best-known architectural firms in the a new, monumental capitol as a memorial to United States, including John Russell Pope, the state's soldiers who had died in the war, H. Van Buren Magonigle, Paul Cret, and the Nebraskans agreed with little dissent. Within grand master of public architecture of the late 230 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1995 nineteenth century-the firm of McKim, naded dome. A similar but more sumptuous Mead, and White, then in its last days. All of design won the Minnesota commission for Cass the finalists were cultural conservatives, if Gilbert in 1895. Both structures were com one is to judge by the designs they submitted pleted early in the twentieth century. Other for the competition; none were Progressives commissions followed: South Carolina, Mon in any political sense, including the winner, tana, South Dakota, Arkansas, Mississippi, Bertram Goodhue. All shared in the eclec Pennsylvania, Idaho, Kentucky, Utah, and ticism of the age, and most adhered to the Wisconsin. By no means were all aesthetically principles and traditions of the Ecole des Beaux successful, but the climax of the American Arts of Paris. IO Renaissance appeared in Washington State What are the characteristics of Beaux-Arts with the design by the firm of Wilder & White eclecticism in architecture? Strict adherence for a cluster of buildings in Olympia on a splen to compositional "laws"; devotion to symme did promontory rising above an arm of Puget try; monumentality at the expense of func SoundY tion; integration oflavish decorative elements; Studying the state capitols of the Progres grand staircases both internal and external; sive era helps us to understand why Goodhue's impressive enclosures of huge, internal spaces plan for Nebraska won the competition so through the dramatic use of arches. Above all, easily and why it attracted immediate and in it meant emphasis on the "correct" use of"ap ternational acclaim. Critics declared Good proved" styles. But Beaux-Arts principles also hue's conception to be a complete break with allowed the architect, as architectural histo the past, or so it seemed to eyes accustomed to rian William Jordy puts it, "to rummage the the visual platitudes of Beaux-Arts classicism. 13 gamut of historical styles for his detailing," But it was hardly that. Instead, it was a bril and then "to work eclectically within a cho liant modification-a daring departure from sen style." Although it was permissible to use the academicism that had stifled public archi Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, or what tecture for two decades. ever, the American public of the Progressive Actually, reverence for the past is every Era seemed to believe that public buildings where evident in Goodhue's capital. One of (and especially state capitols) should be de the most influential American architects of signed in a neo-classic Renaissance style. The his time, Goodhue had been strongly attracted national capitol in Washington was the pro to medievalism. He had an affinity for the Pre totype, with its columns, domes, pediments, Raphaelites, that powerful group of nine porticoes, pilasters, balustrades, and mon teenth-century English artists who urged a umental staircases, all massed in perfect sym return to aesthetic values that antedated the metry.ll More than mere revivalism, Beaux Renaissance. He was charmed by the work of Arts eclecticism was a mode that looked to Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. His the past for inspiration in order to serve the early fame as an architect rested largely on his civic values of its own time. revival of neo-Gothic forms in church archi All of the state capitols designed and built tecture, some of it highly innovative. And during the two decades before the First World Goodhue was a major figure in the revival of War adhere to Beaux-Arts principles; all are the Spanish colonial style that swept the examples of what is termed the American American southwest after the 1911 Panama Renaissance. McKim, Mead, and White, per California Exposition in San Diego, which he haps the most famous architectural firm in the helped design. 14 country, set the pace in 1891 with the design Born into an old, genteel Connecticut Yan for the Rhode Island capitol, which featured a kee family, less prosperous than formerly, prominent portico with staircase, matching Goodhue was largely self-educated. He had wings, and a carefully proportioned, colon- begun his life in architecture as a draftsman, THE NEBRASKA CAPITOL 231 and had climbed to national prominence in partnership with Ralph Adams Cram, a pro foundly conservative architect with whom he shared many cultural values and attitudes, pro fessionally and personally.15 Both possessed powerful and complex personalities, Cram the more domineering, Goodhue the more mer curial. Theirs was not an easy partnership, and after a trial separation in which Goodhue ran their New York office and Cram reigned in Boston, Goodhue decided in 1914 to dissolve the partnership. 16 Goodhue had begun to seek new directions in his work about 1910. Even though some of his work during the next half decade followed old patterns, he gradually evolved a simpler and freer mode of expression. He began to question the validity of historical forms in re lation to new technologies, materials, and methods. 17 This evolution was particularly evident in his confrontations with public ar chitecture. Goodhue's developing notions are readily discerned in his design for the National Acad emy of Science, situated on the Mall in Wash ington, D.c. This interesting building, though not a smashing architectural success, is clearly a prelude to the Nebraska project in some of its rhythms, its decorative elements, and rIG. 2. Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue was photo Goodhue's close collaboration with the graphed in 1924 shortly before his untimely death. Courtesy Division of Administrative Services, mosaicist Hildreth Meiere.18 Building Division, Nebraska Capitol Collections, The central feature of the Nebraska design Lincoln, Nebraska. is the dramatic dome-capped tower, which rests on a broad, horizontal base. Proportional rela tionships between these elements are well bal anced. Monumentality bespeaks the authority the classic elements of base, shaft, and cap are and dignity of the state, though not in oppres there. 20 Even though the capitol dominates sive way. Lines are clean and decorative ele the Lincoln horizon and can be seen from miles ments emerge from the design; the exterior is away, it is not a skyscraper like the Woolworth largely free of fussy detail, for by that time Building that preceded it or the Empire State Goodhue saw decoration in functionalist Building that followed. Its tower is part of the terms.19 Although Goodhue emphatically re design, not its essence. jected the vocabulary of Beaux-Arts classi Approaching the main entrance of the cism, he retained its formal principles: he building from the north, visitors ascend a banished columns, pediments, entabulatures, monumental staircase; passing through a huge and the like from the exterior, but symmetry, portico they enter an expansive interior de balance, monumentality, an imposing stair fined by powerful rounded arches and deco case leading to the main entrance, and even rated lavishly with colorful mosaics and 232 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1995

FIG. 3. Frederick MacDonald, a distinguished Lincoln photographer, captured this image ot the Nebraska State Capitol at the time of its completion in April 1934. Courtesy Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, Nebraska.

polished marble columns. Goodhue designed to the service of civic virtue in the Progressive a neo-Renaissance space (with Byzantine manner. overtones) unmistakably posing as a secular Even though Goodhue was himself a gifted cathedral, complete with vestibule, nave, and artist-Thomas Talmadge called him "the dar a brilliant rotunda at the crossing. 21 Legisla ling of the draughting-room"-he naturally tive chambers are off to the two sides like left the decorative arts to others.22 He pro transepts; there is no choir or apse, but in vided the grand conception; sculptors, mural their places are the precincts of the secular ists, mosaicists were to work out the details. priests, the judges of the Supreme Court. In Early on Goodhue discovered that, with so such an interior Goodhue's imagination could encompassing a project, he needed the assis run riot; here this master draftsman could tance of someone more broadly educated than revel in beauty, glory in the artistic achieve he, not only in Nebraska and regional history, ments of Western civilization, and put it all but also in the history of Western culture. Such 232 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1995

polished marble columns. Goodhue designed to the service of civic virtue in the Progressive a neo-Renaissance space (with Byzantine manner. overtones) unmistakably posing as a secular Even though Goodhue was himself a gifted cathedral, complete with vestibule, nave, and artist-Thomas Talmadge called him "the dar a brilliant rotunda at the crossing.21 Legisla ling of the draughting-room"-he naturally tive chambers are off to the two sides like left the decorative arts to others.zz He pro transepts; there is no choir or apse, but in vided the grand conception; sculptors, mural their places are the precincts of the secular ists, mosaicists were to work out the details. priests, the judges of the Supreme Court. In Early on Goodhue discovered that, with so such an interior Goodhue's imagination could encompassing a project, he needed the assis run riot; here this master draftsman could tance of someone more broadly educated than revel in beauty, glory in the artistic achieve he, not only in Nebraska and regional history, ments of Western civilization, and put it all but also in the history of Western culture. Such THE NEBRASKA CAPITOL 233

FIG. 4. The colorful interior of the capitol contrasts sharply with the comparatively plain but powerfully massed exterior. The foyer, viewed here from the vestibule, resembles the nave of a church richly decorated in an ornate Byzantine style. Photograph by Sidney Spelts, courtesy Division of Administration Services, Building Division, Nebraska Capitol Collections. 234 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1995 a person could develop the entire symbological accompanying letter, he said that he was dis program of the capitol and coordinate the work posed to favor Tack, whom he described as "a of collaborating artists. Goodhue found his strongly individualistic artist" with experience man in Dr. Hartley Burr Alexander, professor in mural painting, notably in the Manitoba of philosophy at the University of Nebraska. legislative assembly building in Winnipeg. He also got a poet and an anthropologist in Tack, Goodhue continued, was in full sympa the bargain. By September 1923, following sev thy "with what we are trying to do." He ex eral highly successful consultations, Goodhue pressed reservations about Tack's technique, and the Capitol Commission had formally which he described as "pointilliste," but added charged Alexander with the duties of sym that in personal conversations Tack had prom bologist for the project.23 ised to abandon that method "in favour of a The backgrounds and temperaments of combination of Burne Jones [sic], Pinturricho these two strong personalities were rather dif [sic], and Benozzo Gazzoli [sicl."29 Thus Good ferent, and disagreements were to be ex hue revealed his own predilections for both pected.24 In most instances, Goodhue gratefully the Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic and old masters recognized Alexander's expertise and accepted of the Italian Renaissance. his counsel. A significant exception was Upon reading Tack's proposal, Alexander Goodhue's insistence on giving the contract objected vehemently. He fired off a four-page, for the murals in the governor's suite of offices single-spaced typewritten missive in which he to Augustus Vincent Tack, a painter whose blasted Tack's proposals as depressingly eclec ideas seemed to harmonize with his own.25 tic, a mishmash of "Greek, Latin, Scriptural, Goodhue's commitment to Tack must be modern and Chinese allusions," erroneous in understood in the light of an earlier dispute. some details, indefensible, overdone, confused In 1921 Goodhue had a spat with the Capitol both in idea and materials, and filled with Commissioners over the appointment of Lee references that would be meaningless to Ne Lawrie as the sculptor for the project. Lawrie braskans. Alexander offered substitute ideas had collaborated effectively with Goodhue on that he considered more appropriate for the several earlier projects and had earned his office of the chief executive. He endorsed a admiration. But the commissioners believed suggestion made by Governor McKelvie that that they were obliged to put artwork out for inscriptions from "men great in American his bids. Goodhue heatedly described such a course tory" be used, especially a quotation from as preposterous. After all, it was Lawrie who Washington's Farewell Address. Alternatively, had designed the program of sculptures. Was Alexander argued for a historical series on "the someone else to execute Lawrie's ideas? The opening up of the Great Plains." The capitol, two functions, he fumed, could not be sepa he claimed, was literally the climax of that rated arbitrarily, as the commission seemed to great movement.3D wish. 26 Alexander also emphasized that the Goodhue reported back that Alexander's task of collaborating artists "is in a very direct critique left Tack "a trifle grieved at first." He sense a legacy from the architect."27 Goodhue enclosed a revision that Tack had prepared got his Lawrie. only minor changes were made-and offered a In autumn 1923 Goodhue approached Tack historical plan alternative to Alexander's. In with the possibility of his doing the murals for a separate letter to Goodhue, Tack argued the governor's reception room, which, it was that Alexander's proposed historical series commonly said, he intended "to be the most called for mere illustration and that "the Cow beautiful room in the world."28 Tack responded boy, Indian, Pioneer, Covered Wagon kind of with a four-page proposal outlining his pro thing" had been done in the Missouri state posals, and on 1 December 1923 Goodhue dis capitol "with not any great success."3! Per patched them to Alexander for review. In an haps the most distressing feature of Tack's THE NEBRASKA CAPITOL 235 substitute proposal was his idea to depict Pere whose wealth came from the petroleum in Marquette passing the mouth of the Platte dustry, Tack was educated in Jesuit schools in River in 1673. Tack got the date right but he New York before studying with John Twacht confused the Mississippi River with the Mis man and Harry Siddons Mowbray at the Art souri. One can only imagine the fury and con Students League from 1890 to 1895. The most tempt that such carelessness must have aroused powerful influence on Tack's art came from in the excitable Professor Alexander, espe John LaFarge, a prodigious talent who had cially when Goodhue cautiously wrote that he befriended him early in his career. According was "inclined to back Tack's position with to art historian Leslie Furth, LaFarge was for regard to the historical stuff."32 Tack "the archetypal artistic persona," and Contrary to Goodhue's hopes and expecta Tack's enthusiasm for Oriental mysticism, his tions, the Capitol Commissioners did not use of photography, and his interest in the award the contract for the murals early in 1924. Old Masters were due in part to this man Late in January Goodhue informed Alexander whom Tack, even in old age, revered as his that it would not have been politically expe master. Second only to LaFarge in importance dient to press the issue. Goodhue added that for Tack's career was the patronage and per "if we-you, Tack and I-do argue over the sonal friendship of Duncan Phillips, a wealthy scheme we can do that later."33 collector in Washington, D.C. who champi But "later" never happened. Goodhue died oned Tack's art from 1914 to his dying day.39 of an heart attack on 23 April long before the Like many other young artists of his time, question of content was resolved.34 His firm Tack studied briefly in France-the summer was quickly reorganized as the Bertram months of 1893 and '95-where he may have Grosvenor Goodhue Associates, which car had his first exposure to the ideas of the Sym ried the work to completion. bolists, a coterie of French writers and paint In June the capital commissioners traveled ers in the late nineteenth century who, eager to New York to negotiate new arrangements to unify the arts, rejected prevailing notions with the Goodhue Associates. Their itinerary of realism in favor of the metaphysical and included a visit with Tack in his huge studio mysterious in human experience.4o Their ideas, in Grand Central Station, where they in Tack discovered, seemed congruent with what spected his preliminary studies. Finally, on 25 he liked in Chinese and Japanese culture, es September 1925, after more than another year pecially the dualistic philosophy of yin and had passed, they unanimously agreed to Tack's yang that postulates opposing natural forces request of$48,500 for the job. Nearly two years in all facets of life "that transcend time and later, on 28 June 1927, they also authorized place in eternal balance."41 Mix all that, add a Tack to do the murals for the lunettes and dose of medievalism and Pre-Raphaelite aes dome in the governor's private office for an thetics, and we get the eclecticism that the additional fee of $15,000.35 All the work was Nebraska professor of philosophy found so dis done on canvas in Tack's studio and then, late tressing about Tack's proposal for the murals in November, shipped to Lincoln. Installa in the reception room. tion followed in December. 36 The rooms were Tack first began to harmonize his diver opened to the public on 1 January 1928, when gent ideas in 1920 when he was fifty years according to newspaper accounts, eleven thou old. In that year he completed murals for the sand Nebraskans braved sub-zero weather and house chamber of the Manitoba legislative trooped through the suite to view this latest assembly building in Winnipeg.42 Following expression of public art and architecture.37 their installation and dedication, he went far Who was this muralist whom Goodhue ther west to Banff, Alberta, for a vacation in found so congenial?38 Born in Pittsburgh in the Canadian Rockies, where he was deeply 1870 to a devoutly Roman Catholic family impressed by the romantic grandeur of that 236 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1995

FIG. 5. Augustus Vincent Tack completed The Voice of Many Waters in 1923 or 1924. A large painting (77 ll/' x 47 718"), this is the first of the remarkable series of abstractions for which Tack is best known today. Courtesy The Phillips Collection. THE NEBRASKA CAPITOL 237 mountainous landscape. It seemed to offer richly finished wood wainscotting about seven possibilities for reconciling a particular ten feet high. sion in his artistic life: the need to bring into As finally executed and installed in 192 7, balance his conservative impulses with mod Tack's murals for the reception room had un ernist ideasY According to art historian dergone considerable revision since his initial Eleanor Green, he "was a painter in search of proposals in 1923.45 Tack all but ignored radical form with traditional content." Per Alexander's advice, and Alexander in turn haps he could "establish an analogy between specifically excluded the governor's suite from nature and metaphysical reality through form, his claim to have been responsible for the sym line, and color."44 bology of the entire capitol.46 Some of Tack's Tack's Canadian experience inspired him original ideas remain, and generally the scheme to produce, in the early 1920s, innovative was conceptually and aesthetically secure. paintings that laid the foundation for his repu The subject matter-such themes as the tation as a forerunner of abstract expres Virtues of the State, Equality Before the Law, sionism. The climax of this early series was the Virtues of Citizenship-conformed easily The Voice of Many Waters (1923-24). Here enough to the values of the Progressive era. Tack abstracted the shapes and forms of a rug They are all proper, laudable, and unavoid ged, mountainous landscape-snowy peaks, ably sterile. Perhaps his choice of themes was jumbled rocks, tumbling cascades, a grassy in some indirect way related to naive Progres knoll, an opalescent cloud-and harmonized sive optimism-the idea that such positive, them in patches of luminous colors. Variant visual exhortations will inspire citizens to civic blues both light and dark, hues of pinks, and righteousness and public service. pale yellows are vitalized by smaller swatches As he promised Goodhue, Tack avoided of greens, deep reds, and purples. The colors French pointillisme as well as any Impression appear in flat, fragmentary planes; variation is ism he may have picked up from his former often achieved by scraping or otherwise stress teacher John Twachtman. Possibly as a con ing the surface to reveal hidden colors or sur cession to Alexander, he eliminated the faces. Space is compressed and perspective all Orientalism he had learned to love from his but obliterated to create an abstracted land friend John LaFarge. He adopted a style that, scape vaguely reminiscent of a Chinese scroll like the room itself, harked back to Italian art painting. An impressive achievement, this before Raphael. More important, Tack's mu painting was a harbinger of many mysterious, rals were entirely consonant with Goodhue's enigmatic, fascinating abstractions to come intentions. During a trip to Italy in 1924, Tack later in the 1920s and '30s. made a special point of studying Italian mod The Voice of Many Waters helps us to un els in Siena and PerugiaY No doubt he sought derstand Tack's murals in the governor's suite. out murals by Pinturicchio, Gozzoli, and other In his plans for the reception room, the archi muralists of the early Italian Renaissance, as tect, Bertram Goodhue, displayed a good deal Goodhue wished, though his exposure to more nostalgia than innovation. It was his idea Giotto may have been more important.48 that the reception room (an impressive space Upon entering the governor's reception 40 feet long and 22 feet wide) should evoke room, one is impressed by its dominating spirit the Italian Renaissance. He designed it to have of archaism. Tack's murals are abstractions, a barrel vault that soars 26 feet above the floor, like paintings on the walls of Egyptian tombs. and he placed a large fireplace at the west end. Tack himself said that his figures "decorate Spaces above the three windows on the north the surface of the wall much in the way the side penetrate the ceiling vault; they are bal Greeks employed the figure to decorate the anced by three matching indentations on the surface of a vase."49 They are formal, flat, two opposite side. All the murals appear above dimensional, sharply delineated, and appear 238 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1995

FIG. 6. Bertram Goodhue's lingering delight in medieval and renaissance architectural forms is manifest in his plan for the Governor's Reception Room. All the murals in this room were designed and executed by Augustus Vincent Tack between 1923 and 1928. The panel entitled The Voice of God is as the Sound of Many Waters appears in the left. Photograph by Sidney Spelts, courtesy Department of Administrative Services, Building Division, Nebraska Capitol Collections.

in generalized light. They are clothed in ar tive Building, which were painted in 1918. In chaic dress, Greek or possibly Byzantine. There that series, Tack's figures, all of which repre is no background, no perspective. Although sent abstract concepts, are similarly formal and his colors are lively, his people are wan and isolated without background or perspective, languid, their expressions lifeless. More in the but are painted in his impressionistic or style of Giotto's fourteenth-century figures pointillist style. 51 than Gozzoli's vibrant fresco in the Riccardi One can only wonder what Tack would have Palace, Tack's Nebraska murals lack the vital produced had he been given free reign in the ity that infuses other murals he executed about governor's suite. After all, this work was con the same time, such as the altar painting in ceived at the same time when he was develop the chapel of St. Therese in the Paulist Church ing a radically different style-the style ofThe of New York. 50 They are, however, directly Voice of Many Waters and those other brilliant related to his murals in the Manitoba Legisla- coloristic precursors of abstract expressionism THE NEBRASKA CAPITOL 239 for which he is best known today. That paint diversity of belief-an uninspired idea true to ing was obviously on his mind as he planned the architect's intentions but which fails to the Nebraska murals late in 1923, which is convey either the idea of religious freedom or when they were shown publicly for the first the inscriptionY Still, despite the dramatic time. difference in style between the two versions, Thus it was no coincidence that Tack's ear there are similarities: little or no perspective, liest proposal for the governor's reception generalized light, flat planes of color, and par room included a panel bearing the inscription allel palettes. "The Voice of God is as the Sound of Many Thus the balanced forces of innovation and Waters." Tack explained that the mural was nostalgia played out in Goodhue's capitol and to represent "Vox Dei-the voice of God, or Tack's murals. In taste and temperament these as it is expressed in Revelations, the Voice of artists were conservatives accustomed to opu Many Waters."52 It was to occupy the central lence in their personal lives. We may be con space on the south wall, which was to be dedi fident that both were more comfortable in cated to "the three great liberties of the the company of wealthy conservatives than people"-"Liberty of Speech, Liberty of Di of moralistic Progressive politicians such as vine Worship, [and] the Rights of Suffrage."51 Nebraska's William Jennings Bryan and Listen to the words Tack originally used in George Norris. Nevertheless, they both fit 1923 to describe his intentions for the Ne easily into Crunden's paradigm for Progres braska panel and compare them, not to what sive artists. And both evolved new modes of he actually painted for the capitol, but rather expression during the 1910s-Goodhue ear to his painting of the same name in the Phillips lier, Tack somewhat later. Collection: Of the two, Goodhue was the more success ful. He managed to integrate the two forces The picture represents a mighty and myste innovation and nostalgia-in a powerful rious mountain, the top of which is veiled composition. He strove for functionalism; he in clouds, but from it-the one source eschewed irrelevant decoration (at least on come many streams of water-some are the exterior). He was so successful in discard gushing torrents, some are thin threads ing the traditional Beaux-Arts vocabulary all flowing from the mountain of God. In while adhering to Beaux-Arts principles that, the foreground of this picture are all sorts until the International style of European ar and conditions of men, pausing in rever chitects found its way to the United States in ence to hear the sound of the falling wa the 1930s, some critics mistook his achieve ter. 54 ment as modernistic. Can the artistic accomplishment of a cul But it was not to be. Tack had a charming turally conservative architect with no appar idea, but it was too abstract for Nebraska's ent interest in politics be deemed Progressive? temple of democracy; it was not in harmony Goodhue's design for the Nebraska state capi with the Renaissance style Goodhue had cho tol, like the art of Crunden's several Pro sen for the room. It would not have survived gressives, reflects a keen tension between review by the Capitol Commissioners, who nostalgia and innovation. Although his early understood that ordinary citizens would never achievements are saturated with medievalism, make the connection between his proposed Goodhue was ready, by the time he won the painting and the concept of religious freedom, Nebraska competition in 1920, to explore new itself a formidable abstraction. ideas within the parameters of traditional Instead Tack drew directly on his Manitoba forms. Compared to the daring and imagina work and painted a group of five figures, one tive Frank Lloyd Wright (an unquestioned signifying the voice of conscience, the others Progressive out of favor in the years following 240 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1995

FIG. 7. Tack's second and dramatically different use of the Voice of Many Waters theme appears in the central panel on the south wall of the Governor's Reception Room. The archaism of this version conforms exactly to the architect's intentions for the room, but the nexus between the text, "The Voice of God is as the Sound of Many Waters," and the human figures intended to signify freedom of religion is obscure. Photograph by Sidney Spelts, courtesy Department of Administrative Services, Building Division, Nebraska Capitol Collections. THE NEBRASKA CAPITOL 241

FIG. 8. Night, Amargosa Desert, painted in 1935 after a visit to Death Valley in California, is a fine example of the many abstractions Tack executed in the decade following his Nebraska work. In this instance he shifted his choice of colors away from the blues that usually dominate in this series. Courtesy The Phillips Collection. 242 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1995

World War I), Goodhue never cut the knot of 3. Robert Crunden, Ministers of Reform: The traditionalism. Nevertheless, his design bril Progressives' Achievement in American Civilization, 1889-1929 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, liantly integrated new ideas with old forms; it 1984), pp. 90 and 116. Cf. T.J. Jackson Lears, No is a monument of creativity produced at the Place of Grace: Anti-Modernism and the Transfor end of the Progressive era. mation of American Culture, 1880-1920 (N ew York: Tack was not so lucky. His initial proposal Pantheon Books, 1981), p. 159. to synthesize his innovative expressionism with 4. Crunden, ibid., pp. 112-13, 104-05, 116-17. 5. Frederick C. Luebke, "The Capitals and the celebration of civic righteousness in so Capitols of Nebraska," in Luebke, ed., Harmony of nostalgic a setting as the governor's suite ap the Arts (note 1 above), pp. 1-13. parently attracted no support and his idea was 6. For a summary of Kimball's life and work, dropped. Instead, Tack settled for murals un see David L. Batie, "Thomas Rogers Kimball: Was likely to offend the good citizens of Nebraska He a Nebraska Architect?" (master's thesis, Uni versity of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1977). who paid the bills. Meanwhile, back in his 7. Henry-Russell Hitchcock and William Seale, Manhattan studio, he expressed his deepest Temples of Democracy : The State Capitols of the USA artistic sensibilities in dozens of remarkably (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976), p. inventive paintings. These mysterious, enig 272. matic, transcendent works were intensely per 8. Ibid., p. 272. 9. Journal of the American Institute of Architects sonal-and rarely displayed. Duncan Phillips, 8 (August 1920): 283. This issue also published who never lost faith in Tack's genius, bought the report of the jury, which consisted of Waddy B. most of them for his collection in Washing Wood, James Gamble Rogers, and Willis Polk, each ton, where they remain today. a nationally prominent architect at the time, pp. 301-04. See also Robert Imlay, "The Proposed Nebraska State Capitol," Architectural Record, July NOTES 1920, p. 75. 10. H. Keith Sawyers, "The Architectural Vi This essay is a revised and expanded version of sion of Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue," in Luebke, a paper originally presented at the symposium ed., Harmony of the Arts (note 1 above), pp. 15-31. "Augustus Vincent Tack: The Nebraska Connec In addition to Goodhue's winning design, Sawyers tion," Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University includes illustrations of six others: Magonigle; Pope; of Nebraska-Lincoln, 6 November 1993. I am grate Tracy and Swartwout; Davis; McKim, Mead, and ful to Leslie Furth, Robert Crunden, Robert Knoll, White; and Cret. Ibid., pp. 17-21,26. It should be Daphne Deeds, and David Murphy for their criti noted that Goodhue explicitly rejected Beaux-Arts cal commentary. I also thank David Murphy, Rob classicism, though he never fully escaped its stric ert Haller, and William Hansen for providing tures. By the time of the competition in 1920, photocopies of manuscript materials in the Goodhue seemed the most willing of the finalists Dennison Library of Scripps College, Claremont, to test the bonds of traditionalism in architecture. California and the Nebraska State Capitol Archives See also Eric Scott McCready, "The Nebraska State in Lincoln. Capitol: Its Design, Background, and Influence," Nebraska History (Fall 1974): 335-44. For the con 1. Norman Geske and Jon Nelson, "The Capi text of eclecticism, see Walter C. Kidney, The tol Murals: Eight Artists, Four Decades," in Architecture of Choice: Eclecticism in America, 1880- Frederick C. Luebke, ed., A Harmony of the Arts: 1930 (New York: George Braziller, 1974). The Nebraska State Capitol (Lincoln: University of 11. William H. Jordy, American Buildings and Nebraska Press, 1990), pp. 81-98. The work of a Their Architects: Progressive and Academic Ideals at ninth artist, Stephen Roberts, has been commis the Turn of the Twentieth Century (Garden City, sioned for the Memorial Chamber, which occupies New York: Doubleday, 1972), p. 347-49; Sawyers, the top floor of the capitol tower. These murals are "Architectural Vision" (note 10 above), p. 17; scheduled for installation in 1996. Hitchcock and Seale, Temples of Democracy (note 7 2. See the excellent review of the Tack conun above), p. 266; Lois Craig et aI., The Federal Pres drum by Elizabeth V. Chew, "Fenollosa, Dow, Tack, ence: Architecture, Politics, and Symbols in United and Phillips: A Case for 'Subjective' Painting in States Government Building (Cambridge: MIT Press, America," in Leslie Furth, ed., Augustus Vincent n.d.), pp. 210-75. Tack: Landscape of the Spirit (Washington, D.C.: 12. Hitchcock and Seale, Temples of Democracy Phillips Collection, 1993), pp. 67 -68. (note 7 above), pp. 204-64; Norman J. Johnston, THE NEBRASKA CAPITOL 243

Washington's Audacious State Capitol and Its Build for the Rockefeller Chapel at the University of ers (Seattle: University of Washington Press, Chicago. See Journal of the American Institute of 1988). Architects 8 (August 1920): 301 and 305. 13. Robert Imlay's brief review in Architectural 21. In the words of Henty-Russell Hitchcock and Record, a British journal, provides an instructive William Seale, "The ecclesiastical aura of the inte example. It appeared within weeks of the announce riors is the most obvious ever created in one of ment of Goodhue's having won the competition. democracy's temples." Hitchcock and Seale, See also a letter from Dwight Perkins, a distin Temples of Democracy (note 7 above), p. 279. guished Chicago architect, to Thomas Kimball, 2 22. Talmadge, Architecture in America (note 18 August 1920, in Records of the Nebraska Capitol above), p. 259. Commission, 1919-1935, Nebraska State Histori 23. David Murphy, "Symbolism and Inscriptions: cal Society, Lincoln, Nebraska, quoted in The Contribution of Hartley Burr Alexander," in McCready, "Nebraska State Capitol" (note 10 Luebke, ed., Harmony of the Arts (note 1 above), above), p. 367. For a useful survey of American pp. 33-47. The importance of Alexander's role in architecture in the 1920s, see David Handlin, the symbology of the capitol is also revealed in American Architecture (London: Thames and Robert Haller, "The Drama of Law in the Nebraska Hudson, 1985), pp. 167-96. State Capitol: Sculpture and Inscriptions," Great 14. Richard Oliver, Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue Plains Quarterly 13 (Winter 1993): 3-20. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1983). 24. Alexander's great admiration for Goodhue 15. Among the many commissions their firm won is amply displayed in his article cited above, note were plans and additions to the U.S. Military Acad 19. See also Alexander's "Nebraska's Monumental emy at West Point, St. Thomas Episcopal Church Capitol at Lincoln," Western Architect, October in Manhattan, cathedrals in Halifax (Canada) and 1923, pp. 113-16. Havana (Cuba), and campus plans for Sweet Briar 25. Goodhue placed Tack at the head of a list of College in Virginia and Rice University in Hous possible painters who were acceptable to him. The ton. For examples of Cram's crabby, anti-demo list offered ten names, including H. Siddons cratic conservatism, see his My Life in Architecture Mowbray, one of Tack's teachers, and Edwin (Boston: Little, Brown, 1936) and his Convictions Blashfield, who was well known for his murals in and Controversies (Boston: Marshall Jones, 1936), the Library of Congress. Bertram Grosvenor portions of which are reprinted in The Superfluous Goodhue to Roy L. Cochran, Secretary of the Capi Men: Conservative Critics of American Culture, tol Commission, New York, 28 January 1924, Capi 1900-1945, edited by Robert M. Crunden (Aus tol Archives, Nebraska State Capitol, Lincoln, tin: University of Texas Press, 1977), 20-26. For Nebraska. Crunden's assessment of Cram, see From Self to 26. Bertram G. Goodhue to W. E. Hardy, New Society (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice York, 25 May 1921, Records ofthe Nebraska Capi Hall, 1972), pp. 164-67. tol Commission, RG 17, Nebraska State Historical 16. Oliver, Goodhue (note 14 above), p. 120. Society, Lincoln. The records of the commission Cram was a prolific writer and therefore his views are divided between the Nebraska State Historical as a conservative are readily discerned. Goodhue Society and the archives in the capitol. published much less, but seems broader in his ar 27. Alexander, "Prairie, Pioneer and State" (note tistic interests. 19 above), p. 2. 17. Ibid., 162. 28. For an example of such a statement, see 18. Sawyers, "Architectural Vision" (note 10 Leonard R. Nelson, Nebraska's Memorial Capitol above), p. 27; Thomas E. Talmadge, The Story of (Lincoln: n. pub., 1931), p. 85. Architecture in America, rev. ed. (N ew York: Norton, 29. Bertram Goodhue to H. B. Alexander, New 1936), p. 261. York, 1 December 1923, Hartley Burr Alexander 19. Hartley Burr Alexander, "Prairie, Pioneer, Papers, Ella Strong Denison Library, Scripps Col and State: Their Symbolical Interpretation," in lege, Claremont, California. Sir Edward Burne The Architectural Sculpture of the State Capitol at Jones (1833-98) was closely associated with the Lincoln Nebraska (New York: Press of the Ameri Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, though he was not a can Institute of Architects, 1926), p. 2. member of the original group. Bernardino 20. Goodhue's break with tradition did not come Pinturicchio (1454-1513), an Umbrian painter, easily. An early study of the main elevation re did frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Benozzo veals a level of columns near the top of the tower, Gozzoli (1420-95), who worked with Fra Angelico, which was to be capped with an ineffective little is best known for his brilliant fresco "Journey of cupola. Similarly, exterior sculptures are not en the Magi" (1459) in the Riccardi Palace, Florence. gaged in these drawings, even though Goodhue 30. [H. B. Alexander] to Bertram Goodhue, [lin had already employed that technique in his design coln], 6 December 1923. Alexander Papers, Scripps 244 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1995

College. By this time McKelvie was no longer gov (1870-1949) (New York: M. Knoedler, 1986); and ernor. In his place was Charles W. Bryan, the J. Susan Isaacs, "Cosmic Landscapes: The Abstract younger brother of William Jennings Bryan. Paintings of Augustus Vincent Tack," American 31. Augustus Vincent Tack to Goodhue, New Art Review, Spring 1993, pp. 140-49. Another York, 17 December 1923, Alexander Papers, useful publication that includes much informa Scripps College. tion and many reproductions, including Tack's 32. Bertram Goodhue to H. B. Alexander, New portrait work, is Augustus Vincent Tack, prepared York, 18 December 1923; Revision of "Description by the American Studies Group, Hilson Gallery of Proposed Decoration for the Governor's Recep (Deerfield, Massachusetts: Deerfield Academy, tion Room, Nebraska State Capitol"; Augustus 1962) . Vincent Tack to Goodhue, New York, 17 Decem 39. Furth, "Tack" (note 38 above), p. 15 and ber 1923, with alternative historical proposal, passim. Alexander Papers, Scripps College. 40. Some writers have suggested that Tack stud 33. Bertram Goodhue to H. B. Alexander, New ied for two years in Paris, chiefly at the Ecole des York, 25 January 1924, Alexander Papers, Scripps Beaux Arts in Paris. Leslie Furth informed me in College. personal conversation that there is no documen 34. For details regarding Goodhue's death, see tary evidence to support this claim. See also the Oliver, Goodhue (note 14 above), pp. 235 and 284, Tack chronology in Furth, Landscape of the Spirit n.56. (note 2 above), p. 117-18. It is likely, however, 35. Minutes of Meeting of the Capitol Commis that during his visits to Paris, Tack studied the sion, 16 and 25 June 1924, 22 September 1925, brilliant murals of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and 28 June 1927, Capitol Archives, Nebraska State (1824-98) in the Pantheon, which seem to have Capitol. served in some respects as models for his Nebraska 36. The murals are described effusively in work. Nelson, Nebraska's Memorial Capitol (note 28 41. Isaacs, "Cosmic Landscapes" (note 38 above), above), pp. 85-97, and more chastely in Geske and p. 143. Nelson, "The Capital Murals" (note 1 above), pp. 42. Thomas W. Leslie, The Legislative Building of 82-86. Manitoba (Winnipeg: Provincial Government of 37. Lincoln State Journal, 2 January 1928, p. 6; Manitoba, Public Works Department, 1925) and Lincoln Star, 2 January, 1928, p. 14. See also "Mu Marilyn Baker, Symbol in Stone: The Art and Politics ral Decorations by Augustus Vincent Tack, Ne of a Public Building (Winnipeg: Hyperion Press, braska State Capitol," American Magazine of Art 19 1986). (January 1928): 6. The governor at that time was 43. Isaacs, "Cosmic Landscapes" (note 38 above), Adam McMullen. His office prepared a five-page p. 141. brochure for visitors to a reception on 1 January 44. Green, "Tack" (note 38 above), p. 61. 1928 that he and Mrs. McMullen held for the pub 45. The Nebraska Capitol, a thirty-two page book lic as the rooms were opened. Tack prepared the let published by the Nebraska State Capitol Com text, which briefly describes the murals individu mission in 1926, offers on pp. 20-22 a description ally. See Governor's Suite, Nebraska State Capitol (1 of what the commission expected to appear in the January 1928), Capitol Archives, Nebraska State reception room, but does not correspond to what Capitol. Tack finally painted. The architect's drawing for 38. What follows is based on several articles the room, reproduced on p. 27, suggests that published on Tack's life and art. The most percep Goodhue had in mind a far more intricate design tive and instructive is the extended and well illus than that Tack produced. The minutes of the Capi trated essay by Leslie Furth, "Augustus Vincent tol Commission are silent on these changes. Tack: A Mystic's Journey to Abstraction," Land 46. [Hartley Burr Alexander] to James Lowell, scape of the Spirit (note 2 above), pp. 11-116. I have 13 March 1930, Scripps College Archives. also relied on John Steele, "The Protean Talent of 47. Augustus Vincent Tack to R. L. Cochran, Augustus Vincent Tack," International Studio 89 Secretary of the Capitol Commission, New York, 5 (April 1928): 66-69; James W. Lane, "Augustus December 1924, Capitol Archives, Nebraska State Vincent Tack," American Magazine of Art 28 (De Capitol. cember 1935): 726-33; Eleanor Green, "Augustus 48. Furth, "Tack" (note 38 above), p. 42. Vincent Tack," Artforum 11 (October 1972): 56- 49. "Mural Decorations by Augustus Vincent 63; Herdis Bull Teilman, "Augustus Vincent Tack," Tack, Nebraska State Capitol," American Maga Carnegie Magazine 52 (May 1978): 13-15; Robert zine of Art 19 (January 1928): 10. Rosenblum, "Resurrecting Augustus Vincent 50. See the reproduction in Steele, "Protean Tack," in The Abstractions of Augustus Vincent Tack Talent" (note 38 above), p. 66. THE NEBRASKA CAPITOL 245

51. The Manitoba murals are reproduced in 55. There are strong similarities in concept and Leslie, Legislative Building (note 42 above) and composition between Tack's central mural in the Baker, Symbols in Stone (note 42 above). Manitoba legislative chamber and his Nebraska 52. Revelation 1:15: "Then I turned to see the panel. Both offer similar abstractions of civic vir voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I tues such as, in the Manitoba case, "Justice," "Wis saw ... one like a son of man, clothed with a long dom," and "Knowledge"; both offer five figures robe and with a golden girdle round his breast; ... standing side by side, although one is a composite his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a in the Manitoba mural. Tack even drew on the furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many Book of Revelation in both panels: the Manitoba waters" (Revised Standard Version, italics added). mural includes two representations of the Tree of In the symbolism of Revelations, the figure repre Life, one on each side, an idea inspired by Rev. sents Christ as the Son of God. 22:2, "On either side of the river [was] the tree of 53. Governor's Suite: Nebraska State Capitol (note life with its twelve kinds of fruit ... ; and the 37 above), p. 2. leaves of the tree were for the healing of the na 54. Augustus Vincent Tack, "Description of Pro tions" (Revised Standard Version). According to posed Decoration for the Governor's Reception Thomas Leslie, Tack thereby intended to sym Room, Nebraska State Capirol," p. 2-3, Alexander bolize the succession of generations through his Papers, Scripps College. Perhaps when Tack wrote tory, all sustained by the beneficence of justice. of a throng of men of all sorts and conditions in the Leslie, Legislative Building (note 42 above), p. 52. foreground of the panel, he was thinking of a varia For Tack's symbolism in the Nebraska panel, see tion on his seminal The Crowd, painted in 1920- Geske and Nelson, "The Capitol Murals" (note 1 22. (Reproduced in Furth, Landscape of the Spirit above), p. 84. (note 2 above), p. 40).