Grant Wood
Grant Wood's American Gothic is one of the most recognizable images of American culture. Wood was born in Iowa in 1891. After high school in Cedar Rapids, Wood went to an art school in Minneapolis for one year and then returned home to teach in a one room school house. In 1913, Wood moved to Chicago to attend the Art Institute. In the 1920s, Wood traveled in Europe, where he saw the latest trends in contemporary art, while establishing his home base in Iowa. In 1932, Wood co-founded the Stone City Art Colony, an art school and artists' colony near his hometown of Anamosa. Stone City's mission was to provide a place where artists could create work inspired by, and based on, the America's Midwest. This became a movement known as Regionalism, a true to life representation of American rural life. In 1934, Wood was appointed Director of the Public Works of Art Projects in Iowa, and in 1935 began teaching art at the University of Iowa, a position he held until his death in 1942. Wood's American Gothic was painted in Cedar Rapids, with his sixty-two year old dentist holding the pitchfork, and his thirty-year old sister, Nan, standing primly at the farmer's side, in front of a house Wood had seen in Eldon, Iowa. The painting was first shown, in 1930, at the Art Institute of Chicago, where it is still on view today. American Gothic also earned a cash prize for Wood: $300.
