Exploring American Gothic by Grant Wood
An enigmatic portrait of the American heartlands
The first thing that always draws my eye in this painting, American Gothic by the artist Grant Wood, is the similarity between the pitchfork and the stitched seams on the farmer’s blue denim overalls.
It’s quite impossible to ignore this repetition of echoing shapes. It’s as if the agricultural tool was sewn into the fabric of the man’s being — which is perhaps why he grips the pitchfork with such a tightly clenched fist.
When Grant Wood painted American Gothic in 1930, his reputation as an artist was slight. A highly skilled painter, Grant had yet to make his mark on the wider art world. This painting would change that.
Once the work was complete, he entered it into a competition at the Art Institute of Chicago — where it went on to win the bronze medal and a $300 cash prize. The museum soon purchased the painting. Wood was 39 at the time and this was only the third time he had exhibited a painting outside his home state of Iowa. He could scarcely have known the iconic status the painting would go on to attain.
The art critic Robert Hughes once described Grant as an artist who specialised in “hometown, apple pie Eden” — but I’m not so sure about that.
