American Gothic : A Life of America's Most Famous Painting

Publishers Weekly

Probably no painting ever achieved iconic status so quickly as Grant Wood's flat, meticulous rendering of two people, a house, a pitchfork and a barn. Its title refers to the architectural style of the building in the background, but from its first appearance before the public in 1930, American Gothic has been regarded not as a work of art but as a work of rhetoric: a crafted, compelling statement about American life with which the viewer may or may not agree. Which aspect of that life and what kind of statement has fluctuated, as Biel's lively history shows. He does a terrific job laying out the various aesthetic and political preoccupations of the relentlessly self-regarding American century, and how they attached themselves to the work, which turns 75 this year. (The painting is detailed and contextualized in 30 b&w and eight color illustrations.) Because Wood was both an Iowan and a confirmed bohemian, the carefully staged composition was at first understood to be a pointed (or ungrateful?) satire of Midwestern puritanism; as the Depression sank in, the grim pair came to convey a noble tenacity that rallied a stricken nation. By the eve of World War II, "the celebration of the `native' slipped into nativism" and the painting's shift from "irony to identification" was complete: the once equivocal pair came to stand for an unironic and universal American "us" whose claim to authenticity might be questionable or objectionable, but never hesitant or insincere. Biel's confident and lucid readings recover layers of complexity from a deceptively simple work. Agent, Michele Rubin at Writers House. (June) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

The extraordinary odyssey of America's most loved-and reviled-painting. American Gothic was almost sent back to Grant Wood after he submitted it in 1930, the paint still wet, to the Art Institute of Chicago's annual exhibition of American paintings and sculpture. Salvaged from the reject pile by a trustee, it won $300 and a bronze medal. The rest is history-and pretty amazing history at that, demonstrates Biel (History and Literature/Harvard; Down with the Old Canoe, 1996, etc.). Beginning with a present-day visit to the background house, which still stands at the edge of Eldon, Iowa, the author outlines the painting's creation, its depiction of Wood's sister and a local dentist (who did not pose at the same time), and the birth of its notoriety. American Gothic caused controversy almost immediately. Iowans were concerned about being depicted as sour, and moralists were concerned about the age difference between the man and the woman: Were they a husband and wife or not? Everyone assumed it was a satire, until Wood fanned the flames by claiming it wasn't, therefore implying the subject matter was accurate. It was one of the most discussed works of art of the era. As America drew closer to WWII, the painting became transformed into an iconic image of steadfast resolution and individual freedom. Yet it has also been used to parody practically all aspects of American life; Biel sherpas us through some of the more trenchant examples in our own time, from the wedding scene of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (parodying Brad's and Janet's straitlaced background) to a New Yorker cartoon after 9/11 in which the figures' "I ? NY" T-shirts suggested the heartland's empathy for the city. Ironically,the author points out, in the 75 years since it was painted, "an image blasted for its inauthenticity [came] to assume the authenticity of folk art, the aura of genuine Americana, the authority of a national icon." Excellent cultural history, using American Gothic to illuminate Americans' evolving relationship with our heartland values.