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Grant Wood: 1891-1942

February 13, 2020 By Wendy Campbell

Grant Wood PortraitBorn on February 13, 1891, in Anamosa, Iowa, Grant Wood was an American artist best known for his paintings of the rural American Midwest. Wood studied at the State University of Iowa, the Minneapolis School of Design, and the Academie Julian in Paris.  Aside from painting, he worked in a variety of media, including lithography, ink, charcoal, ceramics, metal, wood and found objects.

In the 1920s Wood traveled to Europe four times, visiting Paris, Italy, and Germany. He was impressed by the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement in Germany as well as the primitive Flemish and German painters. Specifically, he admired their depiction of mythological and biblical stories in contemporary costumes and settings, making them relevant to the viewer. Wood then applied these ideas in his own paintings of ordinary life.

Wood first gained recognition 1930, when his painting “American Gothic” won a medal from the Art Institute of Chicago. The painting received a great deal of public and critical attention and Wood quickly became known across the  United States. In 1934 he was hailed by Time Magazine as the “chief philosopher” of Regionalism.

“American Gothic” depicts a farmer and his spinster daughter posing before their house, whose gabled window and tracery, in the American gothic style, inspired the painting’s title. The models were actually Grant’s sister Nan and their dentist. Wood was accused of creating this work as a satire on the intolerance and rigidity that the insular nature of rural life can produce; he denied the accusation. American Gothic is an image that epitomizes the Puritan ethic and virtues that he believed dignified the Midwestern character.”

In 1932, Wood helped found the Stone City Art Colony near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to help artists get through the Great Depression. He became a great advocate of Regionalism,  and gave lectures throughout the United States on this art movement.

Wood taught painting at the University of Iowa’s School of Art from 1934. During that time, he continued to produce his own works as well as supervising mural painting projects, and mentoring students.

Grant Wood died of liver cancer on February 12, 1942 – the day before his 51st birthday.

Stone City Iowa - 1930 - Grant Wood
January-Grant Wood - 1940
Spring_in_the_Country - Grant Wood - 1930

Daughters of the Revolution-Grant Wood- 1932
Death on Ridge Road - Grant Wood-1935
Woman_with_Plants-Grant Wood-1929

The Appraisal-Grant Wood-1931
American Gothic-Grant Wood-1930
Parson Weems' Fable

Grant Wood Portrait

Related Books:
Grant Wood’s Studio: Birthplace Of American Gothic

Grant Wood

Renegade Regionalists: The Modern Independence of Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and John Steuart Curry

Sources: Art Institute of Chicago, Met Museum, Wikipedia,

Filed Under: ART, Art History, Painting Tagged With: American Art, American Gothic, Grant Wood, Regionalism

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts X

February 26, 2010 By Wendy Campbell

1. Reverse Graffiti (aka clean tagging, dust tagging, grime writing), is a method of creating art in public spaces by removing the dirt from its surface. Early forms of reverse graffiti include writing and pictures drawn on the dirty windows of cars and shops.  In the last several years, a more advanced method has emerged where art is created by cleaning dirty surfaces with stencils, detergent, and a high powered pressure washer. The interesting thing about reverse graffiti is it can be applied to so many different mediums with ink. Old t-shirts with peeling logos, vintage promotional mugs, maps…he possibilities are endless.

Jeffrey Pine - Sentinel Dome-Ansel Adams2. At the age of twelve Ansel Adams taught himself to play the piano and read music. Soon after, he began lessons and for the next twelve years he studied piano, intending to make his living as a concert pianist. Adams ultimately gave up piano for photography but these early studies ” brought substance, discipline, and structure to his frustrating and erratic youth. Moreover, the careful training and exacting craft required of a musician profoundly informed his visual artistry, as well as his influential writings and teachings on photography.”

American Gothic-Grant Wood-19303. “American Gothic” by Grant Wood depicts a farmer and his spinster daughter posing before their house, whose gabled window and tracery, in the American gothic style, inspired the painting’s title. The models were actually Grant’s sister Nan and their dentist. Wood was accused of creating this work as a satire on the intolerance and rigidity that the insular nature of rural life can produce; he denied the accusation. American Gothic is an image that epitomizes the Puritan ethic and virtues that he believed dignified the Midwestern character.”

Untitled-(baby)- Sam Jinks4. Hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high resolution photograph. It is a fully-recognized school of art and is considered to be an advancement of Photorealism by the methods used to create the resulting photorealistic paintings or sculptures. The term is primarily applied to an independent art movement and art style in the United States and Europe that has developed since the early 2000s.

Le_Dejeuner_sur_lherbe-Edouard_Manet-1862-635. The Salon des Refusés, French for “exhibition of rejects”  was officially sponsored by the French Government in 1863 and was an exhibition of works rejected by the jury of the Paris Salon. Any artist who wanted to be recognized, at that time, was required to have exhibited in a Salon, or to have gone to school in France. Being accepted into these Salons was a matter of survival for some artists and reputations and careers could be started or broken based upon acceptance into the Salon. Today, the term refers to any exhibition of works rejected from a juried art show.

Related Books:
GRAFF: The Art & Technique of Graffiti
Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs
Grant Wood’s Studio: Birthplace Of American Gothic

Ron Mueck (Hyperrealism)
Early Impressionism and the French State (1866-1874)

Sources: Wikipedia (hyperrealism), DAF (items 1-4)

Filed Under: ART, Art-e-Facts Tagged With: Ansel Adams, Art Facts, art history, Grant Wood, Hyperrealism, Reverse Graffiti, Salon des Refuses

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