A century after Grant Wood transformed a Sioux City hotel dining room into a sweeping Iowa landscape, visitors will soon see the Corn Room mural in a new, vibrant way.
"The yellow of the corn has come out quite a bit, and most importantly, the blue of the sky is much more visible," said Christopher Atkins, curator of the Sioux City Art Center. "This is the heart of our collection."
The mural's return to the art center follows more than a year of conservation work at the Midwest Art Conservation Center in Minneapolis. Specialists carefully cleaned and stabilized the seven-panel artwork, revealing colors and details that had faded over time.
The Sioux City Art Center recently offered a sneak peek of the refreshed mural ahead of its public unveiling and grand opening ceremony on June 13. The mural serves as the centerpiece of Pasture to Present: Grant Wood's Corn Room and New Visions of Rural America.
"The nice thing about this panel is that you're seeing a piece by a young artist in his 30s, someone who was filled with ambition," Atkins said.
Wood, who was born near Anamosa, is best known for American Gothic, his iconic 1930 portrait of a stoic farmer holding a pitchfork beside his daughter.
"I feel like it has become the world's first and largest meme," Atkins said. "When my wife and I came to Sioux City from Minnesota four years ago, our first Christmas card was us posed as American Gothic to really acknowledge we were here."
A mural hidden for decades
Years before American Gothic made Wood famous, Atkins said the artist was already developing the rural imagery that would define his career.
In 1926, Omaha businessman Eugene Eppley hired Wood to create murals for hotels in Sioux City, Council Bluffs, Cedar Rapids and Waterloo. The Sioux City commission became the Corn Room mural, painted inside the Martin Hotel.
"He had a lot of moxie, and you can see that in this work," Atkins said. "You can also start to see it in some of his later paintings. I really admire him for that."
But in the early 1950s, the mural was covered with wallpaper and paint, disappearing from public view.
"At the time, Grant Wood may have been out of style, nationally, but in Iowa, I can't imagine he ever went out of style," said Todd Behrens, director of the Sioux City Art Center.
The artwork was rediscovered in 1979. After a complicated ownership history that included bankruptcy proceedings and an auction, a local attorney purchased the mural and later donated it to the art center.
"It had some glory days and some sad days," Behrens said. "We've had great joy and pride in having it as part of our collection for the past 40 years. It has been on permanent display since 2007."
Although the mural survived, decades of age and exposure dulled its colors, making it difficult to appreciate some of Wood's original details. So, in 2025, the art center invested about $75,000 in the conservation effort, with support from donors and community partners.
The results surprised even those familiar with the mural, including Atkins, who organized the exhibition. Viewers can now see details that were difficult — or impossible — to make out before.
"You can start to see how he used one-point perspective to draw people into the painting," Atkins said. "On the right side of this panel, you can see a break in the cornfield with [corn] shucks on the left and the field on the right. In the background, there's a tiny windmill."
Connecting past and present
While the restored mural serves as the exhibition's focal point, Pasture to Present also includes other works by Wood, other regionalist artists and contemporary creators exploring modern rural life. Atkins said pieces on loan from institutions across Iowa and the Midwest help place Wood's work within a broader artistic context.
Among them are works on loan from the Des Moines Art Center and other facilities, alongside contemporary installations addressing issues like climate change, industrial agriculture and population shifts. The exhibition also includes a new by Iowa City artist Thomas Agran commissioned by the Art Center.
Atkins said the goal is to connect Wood's vision of rural America with ongoing conversations about agriculture, community and identity.
"I think he's someone whose art, despite this being a 100-year celebration, continues to resonate today," he said. "Not just in terms of how he painted, but in what he painted."
Pasture to Present: Grant Wood's Corn Room and New Visions of Rural America opens June 13 at the Sioux City Art Center and runs through Dec. 6. The restored Corn Room mural will remain part of the museum's permanent collection.
