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My Daily Art Display offering today is the oil on beaverboard painting by American artist Grant Wood entitled American Gothic which hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago. This is said to be one of the most famous paintings in the history of American art.
Grant Wood was born in small town America, in Anamosa, Iowa in 1892. During his early artistic life his works of art showed no one distinguishable style but he enjoyed painting the "niceties" of American Midwestern life with all its small villages and their white-painted churches. That all changed in 1927 after he spent some time in Munich on a commission supervising the putting together of stained glass windows for the Cedar Rapids Veterans Memorial Building.
American Gothic by Grant Wood
Seeded on Mon Jan 10, 2011 7:52 PM EST
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Whilst in Munich he visited the large art gallery, Alte Pinakothek and was introduced to the Early Netherlandish works of art and witnessed first hand the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement in German paintings which reflected the resignation and cynicism of the post-war period. In all he made four trips to Europe and after each journey he returned home with a much greater appreciation of the Midwest lifestyle, culture and its traditions and this love of Midwest America was transformed into his paintings.
So that's who's responsible for such a famous or infamous painting!
- 2 votes
#1 - Mon Jan 10, 2011 7:57 PM ESTI grew up less than 30 miles from the house in that painting. It still stands and still looks just like it did in the painting. Of course...everyone in the area has had their picture taken in front of it.
Gotta admit though, that I do love the area.
- 1 vote
#2 - Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:34 PM ESTWow, that's amazing! It must seem surreal for people who don't live in the area to see the house for the first time in person.
It must be nice to have lived near there!
- 1 vote
Honestly Darrah, I didn't appreciate it until I had grown and moved out of area. As a youngster, I didn't understand what was so important about the picture or why people cared to go to Iowa just to visit it. I was far more impressed with John Wayne's childhood home (a couple hours north of that house) and the farm house from the movie "Field of Dreams" (near Dyersville).
Now that I live several states away, I think of that old house and appreciate what the artist was trying to portray (or what I believe he was). It means more to me now than those other Iowa landmarks.
It was a very nice place to live. It was very quiet, friendly and mostly honest. It'll always hold a very special place in my heart.
- 1 vote
Most of us are like that, Hunterhawke. And the painting itself--I never really saw how exceptional it was until recently. To be honest, I didn't even know the name of the artist until I began to study art from that period. Now I can appreciate the humor in it and how it represents that particular era and the area Grant Wood was from.
You certainly have a lot of great things going on in your place of birth! :-)
I found this link to more of Grant's work.
I love all of them, but my favorite is Woman With Plants.
- 2 votes
Thanks for that link! I hadn't seen most of those. He certainly has a unique style doesn't he? In some ways, it's almost childish in its simplicity, yet at the same time, it's deep.
I really like Arnold Comes of Age (1930)
It's kind of funny. I grew up thinking Iowa was incredibly boring. In a way, it is...lol I mean, there isn't a lot to do by way of shows or museums or whatnot. However, there are a lot of historical locations that I took for granted. And there's always something to do if you're willing to use your imagination - wherever you may be. :)
- 1 vote
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