American Gothic (1930) by Grant Wood (American, 1891-1942)The Art Institute of Chicago
Grant Wood's 1930 painting American Gothic is one of the most recognisable images in all of art history. Shortly after this double portrait of an Iowan farmer and his elderly daughter was painted, it entered into the public consciousness as an image of pure Americana.
The inspiration for the image was a house in the town of Eldon, Iowa. Wood later said he wanted to paint the kind of people he imagined living in this cheap, wooden house with its incongruous Gothic window.
The title of this painting may refer to the Gothic window of the house, but also to the old-fashioned style of these austere, puritan farmers, who appear as tall, thin, almost cartoon-like caricatures.
Numerous details exaggerate this. The pitchfork points upright, its thin metal tines slicing the air, matched by the vertical lines of the farmer's shirt and buttons.
Their strange oval faces, their stares, and their pursed lips appear standoffish.
They are both modestly dressed. Their black clothes suggests they may be in mourning. At the very least, they are solemn and serious people.
Wood painted this image just one year after the Wall Street Crash, and just a few years before severe drought and high winds turned the lush pastures of the American interior into barren, infertile wastes. During this time these States were collectively known as the Dust Bowl.
Many of the first viewers of American Gothic thought it was a satirical image. Many Iowans took great offence. Wood insisted that he painted the image out of appreciation for these small-town farmers, not out of mockery, but this is debated.
The Old Folks (Mother and Father) (1929) by John Steuart Curry (American, b.1897, d.1946)Cincinnati Art Museum
By contrast, John Steuart Curry's 1929 painting The Old Folks presents an image of national and familial harmony. Along with Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton, Curry was hailed as one of the three great painters of American Regionalism.
The elderly parents, 'the old folks', are taking a well-earned rest in their clean, brightly lit homestead.
Pa reads the newspaper…
Ma knits…
…and the faithful sheepdog watches the farmyard from the window.
Outside, under a blue sky, a crowd of cattle fill the yard. A silo stands ready to be filled with grain. And a new windpump draws cool water.
Inside, the telephone hanging on the left hand wall…
…and the radio on the right, suggest the coming of electricity, and with it, modernity, to these remote towns. It's a vision of the kind of country America could, and should, be.
The Midwest was seen as a cultural backwater by many artists working in the coastal regions. However, sweeping social changes in urban America and the ordeal of World War I engendered a new romantic vision of the region.
Curry made this painting during a six-week trip home to his native Kansas. He had returned there to remind himself of his subject matter and to keep himself 'honest'.
For all his honesty, this remains a fantasy. The reality of rural life was hardship and poverty for many. The recent 1928 presidential election had hinged on this issue, and had reinvigorated the Ku Klux Klan.
The comfort and ease of this painting reflects the victory speech of President Herbert Hoover, in which he claimed "We shall soon with the help of God be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this land."
This victory soon turned to ash, and those words came back to haunt Hoover. The bucolic vision of the Midwest would soon be replaced by Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange's photographs of destitution and desperation.
