Christian Petersen on the role of art in the Midwest:

"A number of years ago, I had the feeling that the center of culture would eventually find itself in the Middlewest.  I felt the east has so much conscious culture that it was subject to spells of indigestion-and it was taking to 'isms' as some folks take to patent medicines.

Here in the midwest, I felt folks would be more natural, and I have found it to be so in the main...So judge for yourself.  Create an American art, here in the rich soil of the middlewest, where America has its roots.  Here shall be the soil and the seed and the strength of art."

Christian Petersen Papers

For additional sketches by Petersen, please click here:

Cha-ki-shi sketches

Hello Beautiful

For more information regarding these images, contact: Tanya Zanish-Belcher, Head, Special Collections
St. Bernadette St. Cecelia Church (Ames, IA)	Abraham Lincoln
Vitus Bering
	Jesus
Dairy Industry Courtyard Bas Relief (Iowa State University Campus)	The Marriage Ring  (Iowa State University Campus)
Fountain of the Four Seasons  (Iowa State University Campus)	Fountain of the Four Seasons  (Iowa State University Campus)

biography   |  in the studio  |  selected works  |  resources