Summary Of Grant Wood's American Gothic
The Birth of a National Icon: Grant Wood’s American Gothic. By: Wanda M. Corn
What makes this painting an icon? In this essay, Corn goes into what make American Gothic, 1930 so recognizable. Grant’s childhood had a large impact on his fascination with the Midwest as well as many of the writers of his time. Born and raised in Iowa, Grant borrowed many motifs and traditions from his past even some that were no longer around. Most of the main aspects of American Gothic from the single house that is in the background to what the subjects were wearing and how they looked was also analyzed in this essay. Corn went into the setting of the work by talking about the house that is in the background. Grant described the simple house as “‘American Gothic’ to distinguish it from the French Gothic of European cathedrals” (Corn 390). The subjects that he puts in front of the house were his sister Nan and his dentist Dr. McKeeby. Corn also points out how the work can be looked at in a satirical way due to the overall look of it. “[A]rt historian Matthew Baigell considered the couple savage, exuding ‘a generalized, barely repressed animosity that borders on venom. He goes on the say that ‘people who lived in a pretentious house with medieval ornamentation, as well as the narrow prejudices associated with life in the Bible Belt’” (Corn 390). Due to it …show more content…
being so well known, it was bounded to be used in some form of advertisement.
One example of this has the male subject holding a giant toothbrush that takes the place of the pitchfork for in order to get a point across about oral
ecology while having the stoic expression replaced with an enormous smiling grin.
Grant’s work was a reflection of his taste and what he felt was important. I feel that he has visually cataloged some of the facets of what America was like in the 1800s, becoming a kind of historian along the way. What I found interesting is how Corn explains how Grant sets up the scene for American Gothic, going into what types of clothes that were used and why his subjects looked the way they did due to the nature of how the photo was taken. I am also interested in the sources that Grant used for his work. The collective sources from his childhood, old photographs of his family or the writers that he admired, he in turn ended up finding inspiration from it. I think that art can be a recorder of history and Grant chose to paint what he paints because it shows some aspects of American life in the mid-west that were a part of his life and which he wanted to show. Grant’s subject matter was overlooked by some artist at the time who saw it as an “artistic wasteland” as Corn puts it, but he like other artist and writers recorded what the people did in that region with a bit of mythos mixed in.
What makes this painting an icon? In this essay, Corn goes into what make American Gothic, 1930 so recognizable. Grant’s childhood had a large impact on his fascination with the Midwest as well as many of the writers of his time. Born and raised in Iowa, Grant borrowed many motifs and traditions from his past even some that were no longer around. Most of the main aspects of American Gothic from the single house that is in the background to what the subjects were wearing and how they looked was also analyzed in this essay. Corn went into the setting of the work by talking about the house that is in the background. Grant described the simple house as “‘American Gothic’ to distinguish it from the French Gothic of European cathedrals” (Corn 390). The subjects that he puts in front of the house were his sister Nan and his dentist Dr. McKeeby. Corn also points out how the work can be looked at in a satirical way due to the overall look of it. “[A]rt historian Matthew Baigell considered the couple savage, exuding ‘a generalized, barely repressed animosity that borders on venom. He goes on the say that ‘people who lived in a pretentious house with medieval ornamentation, as well as the narrow prejudices associated with life in the Bible Belt’” (Corn 390). Due to it …show more content…
being so well known, it was bounded to be used in some form of advertisement.
One example of this has the male subject holding a giant toothbrush that takes the place of the pitchfork for in order to get a point across about oral
ecology while having the stoic expression replaced with an enormous smiling grin.
Grant’s work was a reflection of his taste and what he felt was important. I feel that he has visually cataloged some of the facets of what America was like in the 1800s, becoming a kind of historian along the way. What I found interesting is how Corn explains how Grant sets up the scene for American Gothic, going into what types of clothes that were used and why his subjects looked the way they did due to the nature of how the photo was taken. I am also interested in the sources that Grant used for his work. The collective sources from his childhood, old photographs of his family or the writers that he admired, he in turn ended up finding inspiration from it. I think that art can be a recorder of history and Grant chose to paint what he paints because it shows some aspects of American life in the mid-west that were a part of his life and which he wanted to show. Grant’s subject matter was overlooked by some artist at the time who saw it as an “artistic wasteland” as Corn puts it, but he like other artist and writers recorded what the people did in that region with a bit of mythos mixed in.