Self-portrait, 1932

Grant Wood – As a child

• Born on February 13, 1891 in Iowa

• Died in 1942

• Grew up on a farm in Anamosa, Iowa

• Went to school in one room school house

• Liked to draw but had no money for art supplies

- He used bits of charcoal and cardboard

• In 1916, he went to study at the Art Institute of Chicago

• During World War I (1914-1918), he painted camouflage on trucks and cannons

• In 1920, after the war, he went to France, Italy and Germany to study art, and supervised the making of stained glass windows

• Also studied “Gothic Art” which was very detailed and natural. People were shown with serious expressions and buildings had long lines and pointed arches

Grant Wood – As an adult

The Little Chapel Chancelade, 1926

• Discovered a new style of painting called American Regionalism – Tell a story with his art– Painted subjects he knew– Represent everyday, ordinary people and places– He was called the Midwestern Painter

• Worked as a high school art teacher, painted, designed stained glass windows

• Wanted to be identified as a farmer; wore overalls all the time

Back in America…

Young Corn, 1931

• Grant Wood designed and built the stained glass window at the Veterans Memorial Building for $9,000 in 1927 – Cedar Rapids, Iowa

• The window includes a 16 foot "Lady of Mourning" and life size soldiers from the Revolutionary War through WWI.

Veterans Memorial Window, 1929

Telling a Story• Grant painted his mother as a

strong and loving frontier woman. 

• Farm landscape

• The decorative stitching on her dress, the cameo around her neck, the potted plant and other details that were important to her. 

• People all over Iowa were proud of Grant’s portrait of his mother. 

• It was one of the first paintings about the Midwest that seemed like it was done by someone who really knew and understood the people there. 

Woman with Plants, 1929

Telling a Story

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1863

(…) A hurry of hoofs in a village street,

A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,

And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a sparkStruck out by a steed flying

fearless and fleet;That was all! And yet, through

the gloom and the light,The fate of a nation was riding

that night;And the spark struck out by

that steed, in his flight,Kindled the land into flame

with its heat. (…)

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, 1931

• "Arbor Day," a 1932 painting by native Grant Wood, was used to design the state quarter in the 50 State Quarters Program.

• The quarter shows a one-room schoolhouse with a teacher and students planting a tree and the words "Foundation in Education."

Telling a Story

American Gothic, 1930

American Gothic, 1930

• Grant liked the contrast of a European window on an American farmhouse. 

• His family dentist and his own sister, Nan, were the models for the farmer and his daughter 

• Won the third place prize at big show at the Art Institute of Chicago

• People all over America loved the newspaper pictures they saw of it.

• People felt Grant’s art was easier to understand than the new modern art   

• Grant’s paintings along during a rough time in history known as the Great Depression.

Parody• A humorously

exaggerated imitation of an artist

Parody

Things to remember

• American Regionalist Painter– Painted to express the images in his mind– He liked to tell a story with his art

• Gothic Art refers to:– detailed and natural images– People generally have serious expressions– Buildings have long lines and pointed arches

• Parody means a humorously exaggerated imitation of an artist