- Grant Wood’s American Gothic Painting
- Hate Project
- The piece of artwork I chose for the Hate Project was Grant Wood’s, American Gothic. This artwork caused somewhat of a stir when at The Art Institute of Chicago in 1930. However, the artwork received a prize of $300. Newspapers across the country carried the story of a farm couple standing in front of a white house with a gothic style revival window in the background. The couple, as it turns out, was Wood’s dentist and his sister Nan. He had asked them to pose in front of the house that enchanted him. The painting was supposed to depict a farmer and his unmarried daughter; however, some believed that Grant Wood used this painting to satirize the narrow-mindedness and repression that has been said to characterize the Midwestern people. This brought about endless pop culture parodies since its initial beginnings. Grant Wood rejected most of these critiques’ and saw his painting as a depiction of steadfast American Pioneer spirit.
- Grant Wood was born four miles east of Anamosa, Iowa. He studied many styles of painting and was heavily inspired by the fifteenth-century Flemish artist Jan Van Eyck who influenced him to take on the clarity of this new technique of his “Gothic Revival” style. American Gothic is a primary example of Regionalism, for which Wood is most closely associated. Regionalism was mostly in the Midwest and showed aggressive figurative painting of rural American themes that aggressively rejected European abstraction.
- Having family from the Midwest (Missouri, Oklahoma, and Michigan), my first reaction to the painting was insulting. It painted in my mind a very narrow-minded view of Midwestern people. Mainly because the cherished family members from those states could not be more opposite to what the picture represents. All of those family members are very outspoken and vibrant people with very many layers to their personality. The painting, in my opinion, depicts very bland and boring, lonely and depressed people.
- As instructed, I carried the picture with me for two weeks. Unfortunately, I was only able to have it accompany me to three church events and a concert. However, I was able to get some constructive opinions and it opened up into a discussion about the times during the 1930’s. The first woman I showed it to was Patti VerSluis, 69 years old. She was the first person I ran into at the first church event, which was a woman’s group meeting. Her first reaction was “I love it; it is exactly how people looked from where I come from.” Patti told me she comes from a small town in Michigan just outside of Ann Arbor and almost everyone she knew had that demeanor.
- As the evening progressed and I received more opinions, most of them were the same; Carol, Maureen, June and Ellen all disliked the painting for the same reason I did. It was not until an elderly woman, probably about 78 – 84 asked when the painting was painted. She was from Oklahoma and could remember that time quite well and to her, American Gothic “hit the nail on the head” as far as she was concerned. People were so poor during that time that it was quite common for a woman in the Midwest to be unmarried because most eligible men could not provide a decent living because of the depression.
- The elderly woman continued to illustrate how the paintings depicted the role of women in society. Although women demonstrate positive virtues, they are weak and most of the time they depend on men for survival. The woman supported this illustration by referring to a main character in the paintings known as Virginia Maiden. Virginia Maiden is a young woman who comes from a wealth family. She is young, beautiful and kind. She has the ability to possess what she feels better for her. However, according to the paintings, she demonstrates that she is weak and has to depend on her family in order to survive. As depicted by Grant Wood, the woman cries whenever there is a challenge to her sensibilities (Hoving & Wood 2005). She is always concerned about her beauty and fails to perform the expected responsibilities in the society. She starts her life in a mysterious way but Grant Wood reveals later that this woman is from an aristocratic family. Virginia Maiden stays unmarried for a long period because she fears that she may have problems in her marriage. According to her, the problems may arise because of failure from any man who may marry her. The failure include being incapable of providing the essential basic needs that a family requires (Hoving & Wood 2005). According to Patti VerSluis, the virtues of Virginia Maiden illustrate how women were weak in the society. She proceeds to state that Virginia Maiden failed to demonstrate that women could stand by themselves and succeed in life.
- On the same evening, a man known as Edward backed the illustrations outlined by the elderly woman. He pointed out one of the main character in the paintings known as Hippolita. Edward uses the case of Hippolita to demonstrate how women were weak in the society according to the paintings made by Grant Wood. Hippolita is an obedient wife and very submissive to her husband. She accepts everything that her husband recommends. This is in respect to the negative and hurting opinions of her husband. For example, Edward states that this woman agreed with her tyrant husband’s opinion to persuade Isabelle to marry him. This shows how women were weak and supported polygamy even though it was not their wish to live in a polygamous family. In Hippolita’s case, she supports polygamy as an opinion given by the husband in order to continue accessing basic needs for her family. This is a clear demonstration that women could not stand for the right issues and support themselves. Edward continues to illustrate that the paintings of Grant Wood demonstrates that even the old experienced women are weak and foolish. He supports this view by giving an example of Madame LaMotte. He tells that this woman acknowledges that her husband has an affair with Adeline and fails to confront him. In addition, she proceeds to confront Adeline and mistreats her. Madame LaMotte had the right to address the situation herself but because of fear and ignorance, she decides to keep quite.
- While on my research about this piece of artwork, I participated in another church service. After the service, I had a discussion with our choir leader who is an elderly man. The man whose name is Jefferson has a clear understanding about the paintings of Grant Wood and gives his views about the characters in the story. He starts by illustrating the hero depicted on the paintings. One of the heroes is Theodore who is a casual worker in the society. Grant Wood demonstrates him as witty and courageous (Biel, 2005). Theodore manages to challenge the tyrant who mistreats the Virginal maiden. In addition, Theodore saves Adeline several times and this shows that he possess the virtues of a hero. Jefferson explains to me that the painting demonstrates how some people have bad ethical morals in the society. This is in relation to the main character known as Tyrant. The mentioned character puts false accusations to Theodore that he murdered a person by name Conrad. When Tyrant does unacceptable performance, he puts his blame on others. Tyrant also gives false motives of why he had an intension of chasing his wife away from their matrimonial home. In addition, Grant Wood illustrates that Tyrant tries to marry his late son’s wife (Biel, 2005).
- While on another occasion of a church choir service, I meet with the clergy who is an elderly man. We start the conversation about the paintings of Grant Wood and he gives his views on this case. The clergy by name Peterson clearly explain how the clergy demonstrated on the paintings failed to meet the expected obligation. He supports this illustration by pointing out that one of the clergy in the paintings by name Father Jerome is a failure (Evans, 2005). Peterson says that this clergy is weak in the sense that he leaves his lover. In addition, Father Jerome gives out his son as opposed to the expectations of the society. Another clergy demonstrated as weak is Ambrosio. The paintings depict this clergy as corrupt and engage in practices of rape and incest that are opposed to the expectations of the society (Evans, 2005).
- References
- Biel, S. (2005). American Gothic: a life of America's most famous painting. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
- Evans, R. T. (2010). Grant Wood: A Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
- Hoving, T & Wood, G. (2005). American Gothic: the biography of Grant Wood's American masterpiece, Volume 2005, Part 2. New York: Chamberlain Bros.
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