Dale Nichols: Transcending Regionalism

Organized by the Bone Creek Museum of Agrarian Art in David City, Nebraska, this retrospective exhibition presented Nebraska native Dale Nichols’ nostalgic images of rural America. Paintings dating from 1935 to 1972 establish Nichols not only as a Regionalist in the company of such great artists as Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton, but one who transcended the confines of the genre to achieve universal success. This exhibition representEd a recollection of Nichols’ years on the farm in Nebraska but manifests those memories in a variety of styles and places. Nichols held firm to his midwestern roots while he traveled the world in search of adventure and truth. Imbued with the inherent problems of isolation, poverty and inequality within American society, Nichols’ art references and upholds an American agrarian ideal.