“Grant Wood: American Gothic and Other Fables“

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Through June 10, 2018

 

What the Museum Says: “Wood sought pictorially to fashion a world of harmony and prosperity that would answer America’s need for reassurance at a time of economic and social upheaval occasioned by the Depression. Yet underneath its bucolic exterior, his art reflects the anxiety of being an artist and a deeply repressed homosexual in the Midwest in the 1930s. By depicting his subconscious anxieties through populist images of rural America, Wood crafted images that speak both to American identity and to the estrangement and isolation of modern life.”

Why It’s Worth a Look: The iconic painting American Gothic, a double-portrait of a dour-faced Midwestern couple in front of a white farmhouse, is the centerpiece of this sprawling retrospective, the first major examination of Grant Wood‘s work in over 20 years. But Wood was much more than American Gothic. The Whitney has assembled more than 100 works that reveal the painter’s hugely diverse oeuvre, which includes decorative art objects, book illustrations, and public commissions.

It makes sense that Wood, who became known as a pioneer of American Regionalism, would use his rural upbringing as source material. After a stint traveling abroad, he gave up on trying to emulate what he called “Europy-looking” subjects and opted instead to depict a placid, wholesome view of American life. What is more surprising is that most of these works are cast in the shadow of Wood’s long-repressed sexuality, prickly personality, and interest in the macabre—making them far from a simple endorsement of the heartland.

What It Looks Like: