Grant Wood, creator of the...
Illustration
Object:
Grant Wood, creator of the famous painting, American Gothic, grew up in
Anamosa, Iowa. When this Iowa farm boy decided to become a painter, he imagined
there was only one place for him to go: Paris. He joined the expatriate American art
community there, and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Ernest Hemingway and
Gertrude Stein.
Then, one day in the year 1926, Wood woke up with a chilling thought. "Everything I've done up to now," he told his friend, the historian William Shirer, "is wrong -- and, my God, I'm halfway through my life!" Wood told Shirer he'd come to the realization that he would never be able to beat the French impressionists at their own game.
Shirer offered his friend some lukewarm encouragement, along the lines of, "Don't worry, things will get better," but Wood plunged on:
"Listen, Bill. I think ... at last ... I've learned something. At least, about myself. I think you have to paint ... what you know. And despite the years in Europe -- all I really know is home. Iowa. The farm at Anamosa. Milking cows. Cedar Rapids. The typical small town, all right. Everything commonplace. Your neighbors, the quiet streets, the clapboard homes, the drab clothes, the dried-up lives, the hypocritical talk, the silly boosters, the poverty of culture. Bill, I'm going home for good. And I'm going to paint those cows and barns and barnyards and cornfields and little red schoolhouses and all those pinched faces and the women in their aprons and the men in their overalls and the storefronts and the look of a field or a street in the heat of summer or when it's ten below and the snow is piled six feet high. I'm going to do it."
And so, he did. American Gothic is very possibly the most famous American painting of the twentieth century. It's one of very few paintings that's instantly recognizable the world over, to everyone from art critics to grocery clerks. That image of the farmer in his overalls with his pitchfork, and his wife in the apron with the cameo at her neck, is a bit of scathing social commentary that's been reproduced on posters and buttons and T-shirts and book covers. It's become a beloved icon of our culture.
Grant Wood used to imagine that he was in exile, in rural Iowa. It was only when he learned to "seek the welfare" of that place that he was able to achieve his God-given potential as an artist.
Then, one day in the year 1926, Wood woke up with a chilling thought. "Everything I've done up to now," he told his friend, the historian William Shirer, "is wrong -- and, my God, I'm halfway through my life!" Wood told Shirer he'd come to the realization that he would never be able to beat the French impressionists at their own game.
Shirer offered his friend some lukewarm encouragement, along the lines of, "Don't worry, things will get better," but Wood plunged on:
"Listen, Bill. I think ... at last ... I've learned something. At least, about myself. I think you have to paint ... what you know. And despite the years in Europe -- all I really know is home. Iowa. The farm at Anamosa. Milking cows. Cedar Rapids. The typical small town, all right. Everything commonplace. Your neighbors, the quiet streets, the clapboard homes, the drab clothes, the dried-up lives, the hypocritical talk, the silly boosters, the poverty of culture. Bill, I'm going home for good. And I'm going to paint those cows and barns and barnyards and cornfields and little red schoolhouses and all those pinched faces and the women in their aprons and the men in their overalls and the storefronts and the look of a field or a street in the heat of summer or when it's ten below and the snow is piled six feet high. I'm going to do it."
And so, he did. American Gothic is very possibly the most famous American painting of the twentieth century. It's one of very few paintings that's instantly recognizable the world over, to everyone from art critics to grocery clerks. That image of the farmer in his overalls with his pitchfork, and his wife in the apron with the cameo at her neck, is a bit of scathing social commentary that's been reproduced on posters and buttons and T-shirts and book covers. It's become a beloved icon of our culture.
Grant Wood used to imagine that he was in exile, in rural Iowa. It was only when he learned to "seek the welfare" of that place that he was able to achieve his God-given potential as an artist.
