hello my name is paul priestley welcome
to artist in school
the home of art history for everyone
the masterpiece i shall be discussing
today will be grant
woods american gothic an iconic american
painting of the rural midwest
but the question is is it a satire
or a positive statement of american
rural life
grant woods painting american gothic is
a relatively small painting measuring
78 by 65 centimeters it's an
oil painting painted on beaver board a
type of fiber board
formed by compressing wood fiber into
sheets
the painting was inspired by a visit to
eldon in iowa usa
and was completed in 1930 its style is
heavily
influenced by the flemish renaissance
painters such as
gian van ike american gothic became the
masterpiece
of a new style of painting associated
with
midwest america in the 1930s it was
known as
regionalism which had been named and
promoted by
maynard walker an art dealer from kansas
[Music]
grant wood was born on his parents farm
outside anamosa in iowa on the 13th of
february 1891.
the idyllic rural setting had a profound
effect on wood and greatly influenced
his later paintings
around 1901 after his father died
the family moved to cedar rapids in 1910
wood attended the minneapolis school of
design and handicraft
and learnt to work with metal and
jewelry as well as build furniture
during the 1920s wood traveled to europe
and visited museums in france and italy
he studied at the academy julienne in
paris and returned to the usa
inspired by impressionism but by 1928
he'd made a trip to munich in germany
and saw the paintings of 15th and 16th
century
german and flemish masters he was amazed
at their realism
and attention to detail impressionism
was abandoned
and american gothic was the result of
this new
found passion the painting brought him
almost instant fame and provided him
with the platform to promote regionalism
to new aspiring artists however the rise
of abstraction in the 1940s led to a
decline in interest in woods work
and he died of cancer in 1942 age
50. american gothic was first exhibited
at the 43rd
annual exhibition of american painting
and sculpture
at the institute of chicago in october
1930
the painting was awarded a bronze medal
and wood received
a prize of 300 and not inconsiderable
sum
for a struggling artist in november of
that year the painting was acquired by
the art interest
institute of chicago grant woods said he
painted american gothic to extol
rural american values real people
in their well-ordered world an image of
reassurance during the onset of the
great depression
yet many critics including gertrude
stein
had a different view she wrote we should
fear grant wood
every artist and every school of artists
should be afraid of him
for his devastating satire
i wonder which view you will support let
us look at the painting
and see what you think
[Music]
in the summer of 1930 grant wood
visited eldon iowa usa to attend an art
exhibition
during his visit he saw a little white
cottage
with a carpenter gothic window as he
called it
on the second floor he thought the
window which reminded him
of those he had seen on many cathedrals
in europe
a little bit pretentious for such a
small house
nevertheless he sketched the house on an
envelope
and this sketch became the inspiration
for his painting
grant wood said the idea was to find two
people who
would fit into such a home i looked
among
the folks i knew around my home town of
cedar rapids
but could find none among the farmers
i finally persuaded my own maiden sister
to pose and had her coma hair straight
down her ears
with a severely plain parting in the
middle
the next job was to find a man to
represent
the husband my quest finally narrowed
down to the local dentist
who reluctantly consented to pose
he posed the two rigidly in front of the
house much like the figures he had seen
in
flemish renaissance art he painted the
picture
more in the style of van ike rather than
the
impressionism of claude monet that he
had used
to create earlier works the two models
didn't pose together
but were painted in separate sessions
originally wood had referred to the
people
in the painting as husband and wife
but his sister apparently objected to
being married
to an older man even in a painting
so the couple became father and daughter
wood's version of nan's dress being
ordered from
a chicago mail order firm differs to
what nan later recalled
she said her brother asked for a trim
that was
out of style so i ripped some
of my mother's old dresses and after the
painting
made its debut rickrack made a comeback
the brooch that nunn wears belonged to
hattie his mother
and can be seen in woods painting of his
mother woman
with plants pattern and
shape are important elements in the
painting
the hay fork which was a rake in an
earlier drawing of the composition
has been endlessly speculated upon
wood never mentioned it but he obviously
thought the shape was important enough
to repeat it in the stitching on the
male
figures bib overalls it also
functions compositionally as it mirrors
upside down the shape of the paints of
glass in the upstairs window
patterns also tie other parts of the
composition together
notice the pattern on the curtains in
the upstairs window
is a similar pattern to that on the
woman's apron
notice also that despite the detail used
to create
other elements of the painting
realistically
the curtain and the apron are just
flat pattern the repetition of vertical
lines is
another pattern element of the painting
particularly visible
in the hay fork the white shirt overalls
the batons on the house and the barn in
the background
perhaps this emphasizes the upright
character of the individuals
grant wood intended the painting to be a
positive statement about
rural american values the man and woman
in their
solid and well-crafted world with all
their strengths and weaknesses
represents survivors in a time of strife
yet locals objected to it an iowan
farmer's wife who'd seen the picture in
the papers in 1930 telephoned wood to
express her anger
she claimed she wished to come over and
smash
his head for depicting her countrymen as
grim
bible thumpers wood continually
protested that the painting was not a
caricature
but he fueled the controversy by
continually
dressing in rugged overalls after the
painting was completed
and telling the press all the good ideas
that i've
ever had come to me while i was milking
a cow
yet he was no farmer and was apparently
repelled by
livestock grant wood signed and dated
the painting here
on the denim overalls it is almost
hidden
american gothic inspired the regionalism
movement
and has become one of america's most
famous paintings
america's equivalent of the mona lisa
is now firmly entrenched in that
nation's popular culture
the painting is soundly structured and
yet open
to interpretation which gives the
painting its power
and like the mona lisa political gurus
marketing satirists continue to exploit
its popularity
and power for their own ends in 2017 in
an article by annabelle
sheen for the royal academy in london
american gothic was included in the top
10 of the most parodied paintings of all
time
thank you for watching i hope you've
learned lots about
grant woods painting american gothic
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i'll see you in the next video goodbye