Knowledge Builders

why is the american gothic painting so famous

by Nedra Fisher Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
image

American Gothic has become so famous as an image that many people don't realize that it actually was—and still is—a painting. In their minds, it is no longer an object. In some ways, the idea of an original has become degraded in our digital era.Nov 7, 2019

Full Answer

What is the story behind American Gothic painting?

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 in Eldon, Iowa, along with "the kind of people [he] fancied should live in that house".It depicts a farmer standing beside his daughter – often mistakenly assumed to be his wife.

What are some famous paintings names?

Famous Paintings In The World. 1. Mona Lisa. Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings in the world. It is a portrait of women drawn by an Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is one of the most famous works of art. Mona Lisa is the most written, most visited and the most acclaimed famous painting in the world.

Why is the painting 'American Gothic' called that?

Wood was inspired to paint what is now known as the American Gothic House in Eldon, Iowa, along with "the kind of people [he] fancied should live in that house". It depicts a farmer standing beside his daughter – often mistakenly assumed to be his wife. The painting is named for the house's architectural style.

What artist painted American Gothic?

Here are some of the more famous ones:

  • The Broadway Music Man
  • The Rocky Horror Picture Show
  • Anne of Green Gables
  • Dick Van Dyke Show

image

What makes American Gothic unique?

It was painted in 1930, when US artists were inspired to paint realist scenes of rural America during the Depression, rejecting European modernist influences for a decidedly home-grown, often folksy authenticity, in a style that became known as Regionalism.

Who painted American Gothic and why is it significant?

Among the most influential 20th century painters of the American Midwest, Grant Wood is famous for his unique contribution to Regionalism (c. 1925-45) - the American reaction to the country's dependence on European modern art which flourished during the interwar period.

How famous is the American Gothic painting?

American Gothic is one of the most familiar images of 20th-century American art and has been widely parodied in American popular culture. From 2016 to 2017, the painting was displayed in Paris at the Musée de l'Orangerie and in London at the Royal Academy of Arts in its first showings outside the United States.

How much is American Gothic painting worth?

DES MOINES (AP) -- A Grant Wood painting that sold for $6.96 million at a Sotheby's auction may be a record for the artist who was immortalized with "American Gothic."

How would you describe the painting American Gothic?

Depicting a stern-looking farming couple, this deceptively simple portrait has captured the imagination of the nation, regularly being parodied in pop culture. Despite Wood intending it to be a positive statement about rural American values, the meaning of American Gothic painting has shifted over the years.

What style of art is American Gothic?

ModernismAmerican Gothic / PeriodModernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Wikipedia

How much is the Mona Lisa worth?

around US$900 millionOn permanent display at the Louvre in Paris, the Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million on December 14, 1962. Taking inflation into account, the 1962 value would be around US$900 million in 2021.

What is the theme of American Gothic?

FarmerMidwestern United StatesAmerican Gothic/Subject

Who painted the scream?

Edvard MunchThe National Museum in Oslo holds one of the world's most important collections of paintings by Edvard Munch, including such iconic works as "The Scream". These works become available for the public when the new National Museum opens on 11 June, 2022.

How much did Starry Night sell for?

5.1 Who Painted The Starry Night? 5.2 Where Was The Starry Night Painted? 5.3 How Many Starry Night Paintings Are There? 5.4 Where Is The Starry Night Painting Housed?...The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh in Context.ArtistVincent van GoghWhat It Is WorthThe worth is estimated to be over $100 million7 more rows•Feb 9, 2022

What starry night looked like?

The Starry Night, oil on canvas by Vincent van Gogh, 1889; in the Museum of Modern Art, New York City. The oil-on-canvas painting is dominated by a night sky roiling with chromatic blue swirls, a glowing yellow crescent moon, and stars rendered as radiating orbs.

Where is the American Gothic painting?

Royal Academy of Arts (2017–2017)School of the Art Institute of Chicago (since 1930)American Gothic/Locations

Where is the American Gothic House?

Wood was inspired to paint what is now known as the American Gothic House in Eldon , Iowa, along with "the kind of people [he] fancied should live in that house".

Who were the artists who resisted the dominance of East Coast art circles?

Wood assisted this interpretive transition by renouncing his bohemian youth in Paris and grouping himself with populist Midwestern painters such as John Steuart Curry and Thomas Hart Benton, who revolted against the dominance of East Coast art circles.

Who first sketched the house on the back of an envelope?

Sharp's brother suggested in 1973 that it was on this drive that Wood first sketched the house on the back of an envelope. Wood's earliest biographer, Darrell Garwood, noted that Wood "thought it a form of borrowed pretentiousness, a structural absurdity, to put a Gothic-style window in such a flimsy frame house ".

Who was Grant Wood?

Grant Wood, Self-portrait, 1932, Figge Art Museum. In August 1930, Grant Wood, an American painter with European training, was driven around Eldon, Iowa, by a young local painter named John Sharp. Looking for inspiration, he noticed the Dibble House, a small white house built in the Carpenter Gothic architectural style.

Where is American Gothic?

Odd couple. As with the Louvre’s Mona Lisa, which has also had its share of cartoon iconoclasts, American Gothic is a star attraction at the Art Institute of Chicago, where it’s been since winning a bronze medal and $300 in a painting competition the year it was painted.

What is the Carpenter's Gothic style?

We all know it: a close-cropped portrait of a grim-faced Iowan couple in front of their scrupulously neat, gothic-arched, timber house – in a style also called Carpenter’s Gothic for its homespun take on Victorian Gothic architecture , and for which the painting is named.

Is there satire in the painting of the sailor?

Regarding the painting’s comic tone, Wood himself gave contradictory accounts. “There is satire in it,” he once said, “but only as there is satire in any realistic statement.”. Perhaps it is this ambiguity that has made the painting endure as the most iconic, and of course the most parodied, in US history.

What happens next in the painting of two people in Iowa standing in front of an old house?

What happens next is that once the news of the painting is published, there are two colliding forces. You have a number of East Coast critics who disparagingly declare that this represents rural backwardness.

Where did Grant Wood study art?

Grant Wood studied art as a young man and enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1913. In Chicago he also supported himself by working as a silversmith and metalworker before moving back to Cedar Rapids. He traveled to Europe a few times to study, but he rejected Cubism and other modern movements.

What was the Norman Wait Harris Bronze Award?

It got accepted and won an award called the Norman Wait Harris Bronze Award. It was said to be the third-place award, but if you rank the cash awards, it was more like fifth place. But all the awards came with a monetary prize, and Wood received $300 with his. Of course, no one remembers the first-place winner!

Where did Grant Wood live?

Grant Wood was working as an artist in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he grew up. One day, while traveling through the town of Eldon, he saw an old house built in a style called Carpenter Gothic, which was quite popular in the 1880s.

Who painted Haunted House?

Currently hanging right next to American Gothic is a painting called Haunted House by Morris Kantor. This was also painted in 1930, the same year that Grant Wood painted American Gothic, though not many people have heard of Morris Kantor.

Is American Gothic the original?

And so what I often try to re-instill in people’s minds is that this is an actual painting, a physical object that you can come and see, and that it is only here at the Art Institute, and yes, it is the original. American Gothic, 1930. Grant Wood. 2.

Who was Grant Wood?

On top of that, Grant Wood was quite exceptional as a self-promoter and marketer. He banded together with artists Thomas Hart Benton and John Steuart Curry to form a trio of Regionalists.

image

Overview

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 in Eldon, Iowa, along with "the kind of people [he] fancied should live in that house". It depicts a farmer standing beside his daughter – often mistakenly assumed to be his wife. The painting's name is a word play o…

Creation

In August 1930, Grant Wood, an American painter with European training, was driven around Eldon, Iowa, by a young local painter named John Sharp. Looking for inspiration, he noticed the Dibble House, a small white house built in the Carpenter Gothic architectural style. Sharp's brother suggested in 1973 that it was on this drive that Wood first sketched the house on the back of an envelo…

Reception and interpretation

Wood entered the painting in a competition at the Art Institute of Chicago. One judge deemed it a "comic valentine", but a museum patron persuaded the jury to award the painting the bronze medal and a $300 cash prize. The same patron also persuaded the Art Institute to buy the painting, and it remains part of the Chicago museum's collection. The image soon began to be reproduced in newspapers, first by the Chicago Evening Post, and then in New York, Boston, Kans…

Parodies and other references

The Depression-era understanding of the painting as depicting an authentically American scene prompted the first well-known parody, a 1942 photo by Gordon Parks of cleaning woman Ella Watson, shot in Washington, D.C.
American Gothic is a frequently parodied image. It has been lampooned in Broadway shows such as The Music Man, movies such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and television shows such as Green …

See also

• Protestant work ethic
• Southern Gothic

Further reading

• Howard, Beth M. (March 18, 2018). "Masterpiece Rental: My Life in the 'American Gothic' House". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 5, 2018. (contains image of first Wood sketch of the house)

1.American Gothic - The Story Behind Grant Wood's Iconic …

Url:https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/grant-wood-american-gothic-whitney

16 hours ago  · American Gothic remains one of the most famous paintings in the history of American art. It is a primary example of Regionalism, a movement that aggressively opposed European abstract art, preferring depictions of rural American subjects rendered in a representational style.

2.American Gothic - Wikipedia

Url:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Gothic

18 hours ago Similarly, it is asked, why is the american gothic painting so famous? The american gothic painting by grant wood was created because wood saw a gothic style house in iowa as he drove around looking for inspiration. In some ways, the idea of an original has become degraded in our digital era. American gothic is one of the most famous.

3.How American Gothic became an icon - BBC Culture

Url:https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20170208-how-american-gothic-became-an-icon

23 hours ago  · American Gothic has become an American icon, but Regionalism itself would never be thought of as a significant movement in the canon of US art history. Wood must have learnt all about plein-air ...

4.‘American Gothic’ Became Famous Because Many People …

Url:https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/504605/%E2%80%98american-gothic%E2%80%99-became-famous-because-many-people-saw-it-joke

11 hours ago  · American Gothic has since inspired endless parodies and is regarded as one of the country’s most iconic works of art. But when it first came out, few people would have guessed it would become ...

5.American Gothic: The Top Five FAQs | The Art Institute of …

Url:https://www.artic.edu/articles/781/american-gothic-the-top-five-faqs

16 hours ago  · It seems that Wood was trying to highlight the fearless, pioneer spirit of the American Midwest through American Gothic and many of his other paintings. Technical Merit of American Gothic Beyond being such an important painting in the context of the United States in the year 1930, American Gothic was also a very technically sound painting as well.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9