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Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891 February 12, 1942) was an American
Wood was born in rural
Behind That Humble Pitchfork, a Complex Artist
(review of R. Tripp Evans, ''Grant Wood: A Life''). ''The New York Times''. Retrieved May 26, 2018. From 1934 to 1941 Wood taught painting at the
Wood was an avid
When Wood died, his estate went to his sister, Nan Wood Graham, the woman portrayed in ''
Throughout his life, he hired out his talents to many Iowa-based businesses as a steady source of income. This included painting advertisements, sketching rooms of a mortuary house for promotional flyers and, in one case, designing the corn-themed décor (including chandelier) for the dining room of a hotel.
Wood's best known work is his 1930 painting ''American Gothic'', which is also one of the most famous paintings in American art, and one of the few images to reach the status of widely recognized cultural icon, comparable to
The Most Famous Farm Couple in the World: Why American Gothic still fascinates.
'' Slate'', June 8, 2005 ''American Gothic'' was first exhibited in 1930 at the
,"Cover Article, American Artist Magazine, September, 1940, pp. 4-14"
/ref>
File:Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.jpg, '' The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere'', 1931,
''The Little Chapel Chancelade'' (1926)
*''Woman with Plants'' (1929)
*''
"Going Back to Iowa: The World of Grant Wood"
MA project in conjunction with the Museum for American Studies of the American Studies Program at the University of Virginia, 1998; includes list of paintings and gallery. * Hoving, Thomas. ''American Gothic: The Biography of Grant Wood's American Masterpiece''. New York: Chamberlain Brothers, 2005. * Milosch, Jane C., ed. ''Grant Wood’s Studio: Birthplace of American Gothic''. Cedar Rapids and New York: Cedar Rapids Museum of Art and Prestel, 2005. * Seery, John E. "Grant Wood's Political Gothic." ''Theory & Event'' 2, no. 1 (1998). * Taylor, Sue. "Grant Wood's Family Album." ''American Art'' 19, no. 2 (2005): 48–67.
Grant Wood scrapbooks
at the Iowa Digital Library
Grant Wood Gallery at MuseumSyndicate
at The Ned Scott Archive
"Grant Woods Murals in the Parks Library at Iowa State University"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Grant Grant Wood, 1891 births 1942 deaths School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni Académie Julian alumni 20th-century American painters 20th-century male artists American male painters University of Iowa faculty Painters from Iowa Artists from Cedar Rapids, Iowa People from Anamosa, Iowa Artists from Park Ridge, Illinois American portrait painters 20th-century American printmakers Deaths from cancer in Iowa Deaths from pancreatic cancer Burials in Iowa American Freemasons Public Works of Art Project artists
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...
and representative of Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
. He is particularly well known for ''American Gothic
''American Gothic'' is a 1930 painting by Grant Wood in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Wood was inspired to paint what is now known as the American Gothic House, ''American Gothic'' House in Eldon, Iowa, along with "the kind of ...
'' (1930), which has become an iconic example of early 20th-century American art
Visual art of the United States or American art is visual art made in the United States or by U.S. artists. Before colonization there were many flourishing traditions of Native American art, and where the Spanish colonized Spanish Colonial arc ...
.
Early life
Wood was born in rural Iowa
Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...
, 4 mi (6 km) east of Anamosa, in 1891, the son of Hattie DeEtte ''Weaver'' Wood and Francis Maryville Wood. His mother moved the family to Cedar Rapids after his father died in 1901. Soon thereafter, Wood began as an apprentice in a local metal shop. After graduating from Washington High School, Wood enrolled in The Handicraft Guild, an art school run entirely by women in Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origin ...
in 1910.
In 1913, he enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and performed some work as a silversmith.
Career
Close to the end ofWorld War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, Wood joined the US military, working as an artist designing camouflage scenes as well as other art.
From 1919 to 1925, Wood taught art to junior high school students in the Cedar Rapids public school system. This employment provided financial stability and its seasonal nature allowed him summer trips to Europe to study art. In addition, he took a leave of absence for the 1923-1924 school year so he could spend an entire year studying in Europe.
From 1922 to 1935, Wood lived with his mother in the loft of a carriage house in Cedar Rapids, which he turned into his personal studio at "5 Turner Alley" (the studio had no address until Wood made one up).
From 1922 to 1928, Wood made four trips to Europe, where he studied many styles of painting, especially Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passa ...
and post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ...
. However, it was the work of the 15th-century Flemish artist Jan van Eyck that influenced him to take on the clarity of this technique and to incorporate it in his new works. In addition, his 1928 trip to Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...
was to oversee the making of the stained glass
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
windows he had designed for a Veterans Memorial Building in Cedar Rapids.
In 1932, Wood helped found the Stone City Art Colony near his hometown to help artists get through the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. He became a great proponent of regionalism in the arts, lecturing throughout the country on the topic. As his classically American image was solidified, his bohemian days in Paris were expunged from his public persona.Maslin, Janet (October 3, 2010).Behind That Humble Pitchfork, a Complex Artist
(review of R. Tripp Evans, ''Grant Wood: A Life''). ''The New York Times''. Retrieved May 26, 2018. From 1934 to 1941 Wood taught painting at the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 co ...
's School of Art. During that time, he supervised mural painting projects, mentored students, produced a variety of his own works, and became a key part of the University's cultural community.
Personal life
From 1935 to 1938, Wood was married to Sara Sherman Maxon. Friends considered the marriage a mistake for Wood. It is thought that Wood was a closeted homosexual, and that there was an attempt on the part of a senior colleague, Lester Longman, to get him fired both on moral grounds and for his advocacy of regionalism. CriticJanet Maslin
Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...
states that his friends knew him to be "homosexual and a bit facetious in his masquerade as an overall-clad farm boy." University administration dismissed the allegations and Wood would have returned as professor if not for his growing health problems.
Wood was an avid Freemason
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
and Member of Mount Hermon Lodge #263 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. After receiving his 3rd Degree of Master Mason he painted The First Three Degrees of Freemasonry in 1921. Freemasonry influenced multiple pieces of work by Grant Wood in his life, and furthered his moral and ethical beliefs.
Death and legacy
On the eve of his 51st birthday, Wood died at Iowa City university hospital ofpancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer arises when cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a mass. These cancerous cells have the ability to invade other parts of the body. A number of types of pancr ...
. He is buried at Riverside Cemetery, Anamosa, Iowa.
When Wood died, his estate went to his sister, Nan Wood Graham, the woman portrayed in ''American Gothic
''American Gothic'' is a 1930 painting by Grant Wood in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Wood was inspired to paint what is now known as the American Gothic House, ''American Gothic'' House in Eldon, Iowa, along with "the kind of ...
''. When she died in 1990, her estate, along with Wood's personal effects and various works of art, became the property of the Figge Art Museum
The Figge Art Museum is an art museum in Davenport, Iowa. The Figge, as it is commonly known, has an encyclopedic collection and serves as the major art museum for the eastern Iowa and western Illinois region. The Figge works closely with sever ...
in Davenport, Iowa
Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and ...
.
The World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
Liberty Ship was named in his honor.
In 2009, Grant was awarded the Iowa Prize, the state's highest citizen honor.
Grant Wood Area Education Agency, one of Iowa's nine regional Area Education Agencies established in 1974, which is serving Eastern Iowa, was named after Grant Wood.
Work
Wood was an active painter from an extremely young age until his death, and although he is best known for his paintings, he worked in a large number of media, includinglithography
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
, ink, charcoal
Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ...
, ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, ...
s, metal
A metal (from ancient Greek, Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, e ...
, wood
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...
and found objects.
Throughout his life, he hired out his talents to many Iowa-based businesses as a steady source of income. This included painting advertisements, sketching rooms of a mortuary house for promotional flyers and, in one case, designing the corn-themed décor (including chandelier) for the dining room of a hotel.
Regionalism
Wood is associated with the American movement of Regionalism, which was primarily situated in the Midwest, and advanced figurative painting of rural American themes in an aggressive rejection of European abstraction. Wood was one of three artists most associated with the movement. The others, John Steuart Curry and Thomas Hart Benton, returned to the Midwest in the 1930s due to Wood's encouragement and assistance with locating teaching positions for them at colleges in Wisconsin and Missouri, respectively. Along with Benton, Curry, and other Regionalist artists, Wood's work was marketed throughAssociated American Artists
Associated American Artists (AAA) was an art gallery in New York City that was established in 1934 and ceased operation in 2000. The gallery marketed art to the middle and upper-middle classes, first in the form of affordable prints and later in ...
in New York for many years. Wood is considered the patron artist of Cedar Rapids, and his childhood country school is depicted on the 2004 Iowa State Quarter.
''American Gothic''
Wood's best known work is his 1930 painting ''American Gothic'', which is also one of the most famous paintings in American art, and one of the few images to reach the status of widely recognized cultural icon, comparable to Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on ...
's ''Mona Lisa
The ''Mona Lisa'' ( ; it, Gioconda or ; french: Joconde ) is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best kno ...
'' and Edvard Munch's '' The Scream''.Fineman, MiaThe Most Famous Farm Couple in the World: Why American Gothic still fascinates.
'' Slate'', June 8, 2005 ''American Gothic'' was first exhibited in 1930 at the
Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
, where it is still located. It was given a $300 prize and made news stories country-wide, bringing Wood immediate recognition. Since then, it has been borrowed and satirized endlessly"Grant Wood",
Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
. Retrieved December 14, 2008. for advertisements and cartoons.Kendall, Sue M., "Wood, Grant", Oxford Art Online (subscription). Retrieved December 14, 2008.
Art critics who had favorable opinions about the painting, such as Gertrude Stein and Christopher Morley, assumed the painting was meant to be a satire of repression and narrow-mindedness of rural small-town life. It was seen as part of the trend toward increasingly critical depictions of rural America, along the lines of such novels as Sherwood Anderson's ''1919 Winesburg, Ohio
''Winesburg, Ohio'' (full title: ''Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life'') is a 1919 short story cycle by the American author Sherwood Anderson. The work is structured around the life of protagonist George Willard, from the ...
'', Sinclair Lewis's 1920 '' Main Street'', and Carl Van Vechten's ''The Tattooed Countess''. Wood rejected this reading of it. With the onset of the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, it came to be seen as a depiction of steadfast American pioneer spirit. Another reading is that it is an ambiguous fusion of reverence and parody.
Wood's inspiration came from Eldon, southern Iowa, where a cottage designed in the Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
style with an upper window in the shape of a medieval pointed arch provided the background and also the painting's title. Wood decided to paint the house along with "the kind of people I fancied should live in that house." The painting shows a farmer standing beside his spinster daughter, figures modeled by the artist's sister, Nan (1900–1990), and his dentist. Wood's sister insisted that the painting depicts the farmer's daughter and not wife, disliking suggestions it was the farmer's wife, since that would mean that she looks older than Wood's sister preferred to think of herself. The dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby (1867–1950), was from Cedar Rapids. The woman is dressed in a dark print apron mimicking 19th-century Americana with a cameo brooch. The couple are in the traditional roles of men and women, the man's pitchfork symbolizing hard labor.
The compositional severity and detailed technique derive from Northern Renaissance paintings, which Grant had looked at during three visits to Europe; after this he became increasingly aware of the Midwest's own legacy, which also informs the work. It is a key image of Regionalism.
Wood was hired in 1940, along with eight other prominent American artists, to document and interpret dramatic scenes and characters during the production of the film '' The Long Voyage Home'', a cinematic adaptation of Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earli ...
's plays./ref>
Gallery
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
File:Daughters of Revolution.jpg, '' Daughters of Revolution'', 1932, Cincinnati Art Museum
File:Parson Weems' Fable.jpg, ''Parson Weems' Fable'', 1939, Amon Carter Museum
Amon may refer to:
Mythology
* Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra
* Aamon, a Goetic demon
People Momonym
* Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah
Given name
* Amon G. Carter (1879–1955), American pub ...
File:'Sentimental Ballad' by Grant Wood, 1940.jpg, '' Sentimental Ballad'', 1940, New Britain Museum
The New Britain Museum of American Art is an art museum in New Britain, Connecticut. Founded in 1903, it is the first museum in the country dedicated to American art.
A total of 72,000 visits were made to the museum in the year ending June 30, 200 ...
File:'January' by Grant Wood, 1940-41, Cleveland Museum of Art.JPG, ''January'', 1940–41, Cleveland Museum of Art
List of works
Paintings
*''Spotted Man'' (1924) *''The Little Chapel Chancelade'' (1926)
*''Woman with Plants'' (1929)
*''American Gothic
''American Gothic'' is a 1930 painting by Grant Wood in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Wood was inspired to paint what is now known as the American Gothic House, ''American Gothic'' House in Eldon, Iowa, along with "the kind of ...
'' (1930)
*'' Arnold Comes of Age'' (1930)
*'' Stone City, Iowa'' (1930)
*'' /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Grant_Wood_appraisal.jpg Appraisal' (1931)
*''Young Corn'' (1931)
*'' Fall Plowing'' (1931)
*''The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover, West Branch, Iowa'' (1931)
*'' The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere'' (1931)
*''Plaid Sweater'' (1931)
*'' /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Grant_Wood.jpg Self-Portrait' (1932)
*''Arbor Day'' (1932)
*''Boy Milking Cow'' (1932)
*'' Daughters of Revolution'' (1932)
*''Portrait of Nan'' (1933)
*'' /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Nearsundown_wood.jpg Near Sundown' (1933)
*''Dinner for Threshers'' (1934)
*''Return from Bohemia'' (1935)
*''Death on Ridge Road'' (1935)
*''Spring Turning'' (1936)
*''Seedtime and Harvest'' (1937)
*''Sultry Night'' (1937)
*''Haying'' (1939)
*''New Road'' (1939)
*'' /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Parson_Weems%27_Fable.jpg Parson Weems' Fable' (1939)
*'' /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/%27January%27_by_Grant_Wood%2C_1940-41%2C_Cleveland_Museum_of_Art.JPG January' (1940)
*'' /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Iowacornfield_wood.jpg Iowa Cornfield' (1941)
*''Spring in the Country'' (1941)
Writing
* Wood, Grant. "Art in the Daily Life of the Child." ''Rural America'', March 1940, 7–9. * ''Revolt against the City''. Iowa City: Clio Press, 1935.References
Sources
* Corn, Wanda M. ''Grant Wood: The Regionalist Vision''. New Haven: Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Yale University Press, 1983. * Crowe, David. "Illustration as Interpretation: Grant Wood's 'New Deal' Reading of Sinclair Lewis's ''Main Street''." In ''Sinclair Lewis at 100: Papers Presented at a Centennial Conference'', edited by Michael Connaughton, 95–111. St. Cloud, MN: St. Cloud State University, 1985. * Czestochowski, Joseph S. ''John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood: A Portrait of Rural America''. Columbia: University of Missouri Press and Cedar Rapids Art Association, 1981. * DeLong, Lea Rosson. ''Grant Wood's Main Street: Art, Literature and the American Midwest''. Ames: Exhibition catalog from the Brunnier Art Museum at Iowa State University, 2004. * ''When Tillage Begins, Other Arts Follow: Grant Wood and Christian Petersen Murals''. Ames: Exhibition catalog from the Brunnier Art Museum at Iowa State University, 2006. * Dennis, James M. ''Grant Wood: A Study in American Art and Culture''. New York: Viking Press, 1975. * ''Renegade Regionalists: The Modern Independence of Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and John Steuart Curry''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998. * Evans, R. Tripp. ''Grant Wood Life'. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010 . * Graham, Nan Wood, John Zug, and Julie Jensen McDonald. ''My Brother, Grant Wood''. Iowa City: State Historical Society of Iowa, 1993. * Green, Edwin B. ''A Grant Wood Sampler'', January Issue of the Palimpsest. Iowa City: State Historical Society of Iowa, 1972. * Haven, Janet"Going Back to Iowa: The World of Grant Wood"
MA project in conjunction with the Museum for American Studies of the American Studies Program at the University of Virginia, 1998; includes list of paintings and gallery. * Hoving, Thomas. ''American Gothic: The Biography of Grant Wood's American Masterpiece''. New York: Chamberlain Brothers, 2005. * Milosch, Jane C., ed. ''Grant Wood’s Studio: Birthplace of American Gothic''. Cedar Rapids and New York: Cedar Rapids Museum of Art and Prestel, 2005. * Seery, John E. "Grant Wood's Political Gothic." ''Theory & Event'' 2, no. 1 (1998). * Taylor, Sue. "Grant Wood's Family Album." ''American Art'' 19, no. 2 (2005): 48–67.
External links
Grant Wood scrapbooks
at the Iowa Digital Library
Grant Wood Gallery at MuseumSyndicate
at The Ned Scott Archive
"Grant Woods Murals in the Parks Library at Iowa State University"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Grant Grant Wood, 1891 births 1942 deaths School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni Académie Julian alumni 20th-century American painters 20th-century male artists American male painters University of Iowa faculty Painters from Iowa Artists from Cedar Rapids, Iowa People from Anamosa, Iowa Artists from Park Ridge, Illinois American portrait painters 20th-century American printmakers Deaths from cancer in Iowa Deaths from pancreatic cancer Burials in Iowa American Freemasons Public Works of Art Project artists