Grant Wood At The Whitney

‘American Gothic,” 1930, the painting by Grant Wood of an Iowa farm couple standing erect and somber in front of a Gothic farmhouse, might be considered America’s Mona Lisa.  Both are iconic portraits that reflect a preserved notion of each culture’s identity at a crucial time in our respective histories.  Astonishingly, both paintings continue to draw throngs of spectators who often wait in line to view these relatively small paintings. (Both approximately 2 ½ feet in height)

Last week at The Whitney Museum of Art, a crowd  hovered in front of “American Gothic,” unselfconsciously taking selfies next to America’s most parodied work of art.  It is hard to get  close, but it didn’t matter because there were far more  interesting paintings in the exhibition “Grant Wood: American Gothic and Other Fables,” which runs through June 10. This beautifully curated show indulges the viewer with the chance of seeing significant loans of Wood’s work close to home.

 For those of us who grew up in the Northwest Corner, the painting “Dinner for Threshers,” 1934, resonates with our history of dairy farming.  This three-paneled oil of farm workers sitting down to take their midday meal is a lengthwise slice of Wood’s farm house exposing an eerily solitary and pious scene.   Having been to Europe, Wood no doubt saw European religious paintings which often employ the triptych format, and in using the composition, the work is a personal eulogy and tribute to his family farm. 

The show, chronologically organized, encompasses approximately 130 works including painting, prints, sculpture, and a replica of a stained - glass window Wood made for the Cedar Rapids Veterans Memorial building.  His ability to segue between media with skill and grace  makes it hard to single out what to look at.

“Appraisal,” 1931, depicts two women, the younger of the two clutching a Barred Plymouth Rock hen, a breed known for its resistance to cold and disease.  The exquisite black and white plumage, meticulously detailed,  serves as a focal point creating visual tension between the two women as they negotiate the price of the hen.  

Women are not viewed glamorously in Wood’s work,  rather they are utilitarian participants whose contributions are essential to farm life.   The one work in which Wood takes a decidedly scurrilous twist is  “Daughters of Revolution,” 1932. In it, three members of the D.A.R. looking smug and superior gaze outward. One holds a blue Willoware tea cup.  That Wood chose this tea cup, a pattern popular among many pompous WASP households in the early 20th century, might be a subtle pun that D.A.R members were not his cup of tea. The D.A.R. were outraged at the portrait, which must have delighted Wood as the D.A.R  had refused to celebrate his stained - glass window because he used German craftsmen, an act they deemed unpatriotic.   

Many of the strongest works in the show focus on agrarian life, painted in a fantastical style that reveals rather than idealizes the darkness of the time.  “Spring Turning,” 1936 is a landscape viewed from above of vibrant green rolling hills, defined by freshly tilled rows. Small balloon-like trees dot the landscape. Godlike, we float above the countryside feeling precarious and  unsettled.

There is something noteworthy about the balloon-like trees, for they are not the tight brush stroke trees of the American landscape painters, rather, voluptuous perennials that draw us in to suggest abundance and sensuality at a time when our country lacked both.  (Curiously, Wood’s trees are the very ones evident on the Willoware tea cup in Daughters of Revolution.)

As a crowd waited for the elevator to leave the show, a young women said to her friend, “It’s great…right…the work.  But isn’t it illustration?” implying that Wood’s work was not fine art. While it’s true that most of Wood‘s work was executed for commission, does this diminish the artist?   And if so, what about the commissioned work by Leonardo da Vinci?   

“Does it really matter?” replied the friend, “It’s is a great show and we got to see American Gothic in person.”