Grant Wood
American Gothic
1930
Grant Wood's 'American Gothic' (1930) depicts a farmer (modelled on Wood's dentist, Dr Byron McKeeby) and his daughter (Wood's sister Nan) in front of a small Carpenter-Gothic house in Eldon, Iowa. The rigid pose, pitchfork, and pinched expressions distil the mythology of the Midwestern smallholder and have made the painting one of the most parodied and most instantly recognisable images in American art. It has hung at the Art Institute of Chicago since 1930.
Exhibition Venue
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