G -A -L - L - E - R - Y

American Gothic is a work by American Grant Wood. It was painted in 1930 and shows

a farm couple standing in front of a rural Gothic style house. ... Wood's work

evokes the everyday roles of 19th century men and women.

The artwork known as American Gothic, by Grant Wood, was created in 1930. It was a time of

time of great conflict in the U.S. economy due to the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.

of 1929 and the Great Depression that accompanied it. It was in this period of uncertainty and

social, economic and political conflict where the arts in America rose to new heights and began to seek new

new heights and began to seek new horizons.

During the Great Depression, an artistic movement had formed known as American Regionalism, in which

American Regionalism, which saw a modern realist tendency in its art. This

arose from an anti-modern, anti-European idealism that only wanted to focus on purely American folk art.

purely American folk art. The painters of this movement rejected cosmopolitan cities and instead

cosmopolitan cities and instead settle in the rural, homelike American homelands.

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Grant Wood was an American artist born in 1891 in Iowa. In his formative years
years he studied at several art schools, the most important being The Handicraft Guild (an all-female run art school) and the
school of art run entirely by women) and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Chicago. Once he finished his studies, Wood undertook a trip to Europe that lasted from 1922 to 1928.
from 1922 to 1928, where she studied a great number of styles, but mainly impressionism and post-impressionism.
impressionism and post-impressionism. Although he is best known for his paintings,
Wood worked in a variety of other media, such as lithography, ink, charcoal, ceramics, metal, wood and foundown,
metal, wood and foundobject (an art movement characterized by the use of found everyday objects that were not
found everyday objects that would not normally be considered art). In 1929, Grant was still
an unknown artist, living in the attic of a funeral home with his sister and mother, sleeping side by side.
mother, sleeping side by side. He went unnoticed by his neighbors and was generally regarded as a good, harmless guy.
generally regarded as a nice, harmless guy. It was in 1930, when Wood was
driving through the small town of Eldon, Iowa when something caught his attention and forced him to stop.
stop. It was an arched Gothic window in the Carpenter Gothic style. Obsessed
obsessed with what he had seen, Woods decided to make the painting with the help of his sister and his dentist, the two
dentist, the two protagonists of the work of art. Once completed, Wood sent the work to a competition at the
competition at the Art Institute of Chicago, and it instantly became a hit in the art world.
in the art world. Just as he had critics who objected to the apparent satire that Wood illustrated in the artwork, Wood's
Wood illustrated in the artwork, it went on to become one of the most parodied pieces in the art world, with countless
the art world, with countless satirical copies and reproductions of Wood's painting.

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The inspiration for American Gothic undoubtedly stems from the house's Gothic window, which was itself inspired by European Gothic cathedrals.
which was itself inspired by European Gothic cathedrals. This style was known as Carpenter Gothic
as Carpenter Gothic or Rural Gothic and was a very popular style in the United States at the time.

the United States during that time. But Grant Wood doesn't stop there in terms of inspiration.
From there you can notice the style of Renaissance art with the stiff poses of the two
protagonists. 4 The techniques involved in the creation of the piece are diverse and Wood incorporated them into his style of realism.
Wood incorporated them into his style of realism during his adventures in Europe. Among them, the following stand out
impressionism, with its fine but visible brushstrokes, a precise representation of light, and a good handling of the human figure.
good handling of the human figure; and post-impressionism with its use of symbolic content.
symbolic content. In the case of American Gothic, these symbolisms can be seen in several examples: the farmer's pitchfork
examples: the farmer's pitchfork and his overalls represent manual field work, while the print on the apron and the
while the woman's apron print represents America in the 19th century.
The plants and flowers suggest home cultivation and a particular lifestyle. But the expressions of the
expressions of the protagonists are where the symbolism shines through, giving a stoic character to a joyless lifestyle, presented almost
joyless lifestyle, presented almost in an evangelical manner. 5 2. WHAT DOES THE
WORK? At first glance, the work highlights a way of life. In doing so, it also shows an era, a context and a convergence
context and a convergence of styles that lead to the creation of a moment that generates a lot of intrigue and curiosity.
generates a lot of intrigue and curiosity. The first thing one sees in this piece is the two protagonists and their somber expressions.
and their somber, serious, almost depressed expressions. They are posing stiffly and
rigidly and firmly in front of the composer. One is a large man, with a stern and somber expression, holding a pitchfork.
holding a pitchfork and looking straight ahead. The woman gazes into the distance
with her brow furrowed in resignation. A connection can be established between these two
characters. At first they were referred to as a couple, but after much criticism because of their age difference, Wood changed
difference in age, Wood changed to saying they were father and daughter. Next is the
architecture of the house, which features an arched window in the Gothic style. That style was
very common at the time, used by the working middle class. The style attempted to copy the
ostentatious, arched architecture of historic European cathedrals, but because they were cheaply and cheaply
manufactured cheaply and quickly, as they were for the middle class, they did not achieve the grandeur of what they were trying to achieve.
grandeur of what they were intended to pay homage to, nor were they made to last long.
In Wood's work, one can perceive a satire of American culture. Both in the
Gothic architecture, which tries to copy itself from something much grander and more enduring, as well as in the pose of the protagonists.
also in the pose of the protagonists, who imitate the Renaissance portrait style used by the nobility and upper classes.
by the nobility and upper classes. In this case, it is seen as a cheap imitation,
representing the American culture, which appropriated many elements from different cultures just to manufacture them in a
cultures only to manufacture them cheaply and mass-produce them. One can see Grant Wood's
Grant Wood's critique of the oppressive limits of midwestern culture, as it used to be criticized by the Regionalist
criticized by the Regionalism movement. The pose of the characters is one that locks the viewer out of it.
who sees it out of it, that is, they don't let us in. They don't want to let us see what's in the house.
house. They are denying us to enter their world, and in fact, even the house itself has this attitude of hiding, with the curtains
of hiding itself, with the curtains closed, blocking the view inside.

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In 1929, the United States suffered (and the entire world felt the waves of conflict) one of the worst economic implosions in the industrial world.
worst economic implosions in the industrial world. It began with the stock market crash of October
October 1929 and caused panic on Wall Street, wiping out millions of investors. This led to what
to what is known as the Great Depression that lasted until 1939. From this financial crisis
crisis gave rise to American Regionalism, a modern realist art movement that focused primarily on small

focused primarily on the small towns of the central and southern United States. It was very
popular from 1930 to 1935 as the paintings were interpretations of country life during the Great Depression.
during the Great Depression. It came to an end in 1940 with the onset of World War II and for lack of progress
World War II and the lack of progress within the movement. Before the rise of the Regionalist movement
Regionalist movement, there was a lack of a particular American style. Therefore, artists sought to find their own
to find their own style, rejecting European influences (in particular the School of Paris) and the abstract styles
Paris) and the abstract styles coming also from there. They decided to adopt an academic realism
academic realism, which sought to show urban America in rural scenes. Thanks to
Thanks to the fact that much of the United States was still a farming nation at the time, the movement resonated
movement resonated strongly with the majority of the population, giving it the importance it had.
This work is located at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, United States.