Why American Gothic Actually Became Iconic

[@TheCanvasArtHistory]

Hey! If you enjoy these comments, you'll probably enjoy the Discord server! discord.gg/Qx2gaq9T

[@leahheim1923]

So I studied Gothic lit in college, and one of the things we talked about was Freud’s uncanny-when something is so familiar, but also unfamiliar. This whole painting is like the epitome of that for me, having grown up in the American Midwest. And yes, the nationalism point is spot on, and I don’t know if that’s intentional, but to me it’s the aggressive American nature of this painting that makes it so uncanny. It sees something in America that isn’t immediately obvious, and it’s something that’s dark and difficult to describe-pride and violence and shame and sheer coldness. The painting is familiar enough to look exactly like home, and unfamiliar enough to look like a nightmare. The perfect uncanny.

[@cactaceous]

It has always looked to me like a MAD magazine caricature of ignorant separatist nationalism. It seems dark and difficult to describe because we see the eyes and they do show shame on the girl’s part and antagonism on his. He seems to want to keep whatever is happening in that household, secret. To everyone. The blacked out windows of the house are very telling and it’s, for a lack of a better word, creepy. They purposely cut themselves off from society. To a “cosmopolitan New Yorker” such as myself, America is more Edward Hopper than Grant Wood. We see things depending on where we come from. That is the United States in a nutshell. American Gothic instills a projection of two fervent followers of under circus top, cornfield snake preachers who behind closed doors engage in incest. To me it represents an America I don’t care to understand and don’t wish to know. That in itself is ignorant and elitist. The divide of the country in our projections.

[@RemoWilliams1227]

Wonderful explanation, ty.

[@giulyanoviniciussanssilva2947]

As someone who sees another country from afar it is like a fantasy from which I see its people draw their conclusions, it is interesting to see the strangeness and familiarity of its idea, it is one of the paintings that defines North America.

[@numbersix8919]

I'm with you.

[@finzenberger]

the all too familiar. *unheimlich* containing *heim* / home as well as *heimlich* / secretive. thanks for reminding us of Freud‘s essay „Das Unheimliche“.

[@michaeljdauben]

I never really saw anything creepy about this painting. To me it always seemed to represent a sort of romanticized vision of America. A country of stoic, hardworking, independent people. The man shows his age, and has been working hard all his life, but he still stands straight and tall, his hand on the pitchfork still strong. The embodyment of how we wanted to see ourselves (at that time) as a people.

[@xpendabull]

That and the idea that he is protecting his home and family, that his house and his farm are his and he has a God given right to defend it, is a quintessential American ideal.

[@juniorjames7076]

Thank you. These are the first and only "positive" comments about this image I've read here. Our society seems to see or assume "evil" everywhere. How about two people who have lived hard lives but are still standing?

[@MrKongatthegates]

I agree with all of that

[@youngimperialistmkii]

Romanticized by whom? And to what end? I actually agree with you in what this painting is meant to represent. However, it's not universal. It's white, protestant and rural. To those who live outside those confines. This painting conveys a different message. "This is my country, not yours.

[@internetuser140]

​@@youngimperialistmkii I don't think it's supposed to be universal. I would say that it's meant to represent the values of a culture, and the people of a country. You shouldn't expect people to make representations of cultures or values that they don't hold, or aren't part of. It's my country and it represents the values of my culture, why should it make way for yours?

[@ThePopUpH8r]

“Get off my lawn” the portrait. Great video

[@knarf_on_a_bike]

To me, it's always been an extremely violent painting. Not just the pitch fork, but that window. I saw a stained glass church window. Whatever that stern man was protecting, he was doing so with God's blessing - and there are few things more unstoppable than anyone doing God's work. An absolute masterpiece!

[@jamesslick4790]

There's not really odd about the window at all. "Gothic Revival" was a popular architectural style in the US during the 1850's -1860s among the wealthy. Easily reproduced elements filtered down to "vernacular" houses in the 1870s-80s. This seems to be an ordinary 1870s farmhouse. Buildings like it were still common in the 1920s and 30s.

[@v.ra.]

This is my thoughts precisely. So glad to read the words of a kindred spirit.

[@barnacles62]

"American Gothic" has been one of my favorite paintings since I was a child, and I'm now 60, lol. Perception is everything in art, and is different for everyone, rather it be music, painting or poetry. I have had numerous conversations with family and friends over the years, and the most repeated thing of why they liked it was the couple reminded them of a person in their family or a friend. I had an uncle, that could have been the man's double, that worked as a carpenter and owned a small farm. I never saw the woman as his daughter, but rather his wife, and not until recent years studying the painting online did I realize the house was only one story and still stands today. It's like hearing the proper lyrics for a song then it changes the whole meaning, lol. Why did it become such a liked painting? My same uncles house was a white two-story farmhouse with an exact type of window in the eve of the front of the home. The porch had solid wood gothic gingerbread. I never saw my uncle without bib overalls, and usually had a hat that looked like they type they wore on trains. He had sheds in the back, and a big pond we used to fish in. He was very successful and always very serious. No one to talk gibberish and was old school believer in working hard and taking care of yourself. This painting keeps him alive in my mind, but being an artist myself, Grant Wood will always be a favorite of mine. I truly admire his work....

[@MeatyPeach]

I have a similar take, I’m in my 30s, but similarly, these are people that I recognize in old family photographs and stories of my grandmother surviving the depression. A fancy window in an otherwise plain house - small luxuries incorporated into a harsh reality. It’s all very recognizable - literally familiar - but also mythological - the stories that they told themselves to make it through harsh laborious jobs in lean times, and stories that are passed down. And each of us recognizes a different aspect or is reminded of a different specific person or house so it manages to bridge the personal and universal. It documents a familiar reality and despite the starkness of the painting kind of romanticizes the idea of hard times building character and how that strength and persistence and character has been passed down through the generations - we could still do it if we had to, (right? I mean I probably couldn’t but the dream is there) but we are lucky that we don’t because they survived so we can thrive and enjoy more small luxuries, have more time for frivolity, than just the beauty of a fancy window and a quick break to pose for a picture - although many of us will never have the satisfaction of being able to construct such a window or be as self-sufficient ourselves. So I guess reality, self-mythologizing, and nostalgia. But also being able to take one’s self seriously and have pride in work or heritage that is not elite but demonstrates a certain persistence and being able to make enough with what’s available. And I do agree with the video that it is very American in its identity These are my American forefathers - the ones I’ve heard stories of my whole life, my great (or is it great-great?) grandparents whose self-reliance, and pride and belief in themselves and their hard work and making sure their nicest clothes are clean even if they are work clothes and standing up straight if someone is coming to take their picture because even if they are poor and tired, it’s important to show the world your best face and be taken seriously. The people who toiled and aged before their years documented and instantly recognizable yet universal. It’s a reminder that they survived as immigrants in an economic depression doing backbreaking work and I can survive too. Just stand up straight and take pride in myself and work hard.

[@MissTeaq]

@@MeatyPeachThis response was so beautifully expressed… I just wanted you to know that it was read and immensely appreciated. 🕊️&🤍

[@jeff__w]

_Everything_ about the painting is about myth-making. Nan Wood Graham, Grant’s sister, had been married to a real estate broker and investor for several years before she appeared as the “daughter” in her homespun apron (fashioned by Nan with rickrack torn from one of her and Grant’s mother’s dresses) in the painting-Wood’s _Portrait of Nan_ probably portrays her as something closer to the way she actually looked. Byron McKeeby, the severe “father,” was a Cedar Rapids dentist-he was actually quite affable and dapper in real-life. He’s holding a theater-prop pitchfork upside-down-one would usually hold a pitchfork with the tines _down_ to avoid jabbing oneself. (Instead of the pitchfork, McKeeby’s preferred occupational technology might have been the dental X-ray-he brought the first one to town around the turn of the century.) So, if Wood “drew inspiration from [his] immediate environment”-and Wood was no hayseed country bumpkin, he grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa’s second largest city-it was an inspiration that drew on the archetype-or maybe stereotype-of the plain, no-nonsense American yeoman farmer, in other words, not anything _real_ but whatever that environment portrayed these “sturdy Iowa folk” to be. In fact, according to one site, at _American Gothic’s_ premiere public exhibition, “Iowans saw it as a caricature of rural life and were angry at being portrayed as ‘pinched, grimacing, fanatical puritans’.” (One letter to the _Des Moines Sunday Register,_ from the wife of an Iowa farmer, said: “We have at least progressed beyond the three-tined pitchfork stage.”) I’m not so sure the painting “embodie[s] a sincere and patriotic reflection of America” so much as it embodies some sort of reflection of a sincere and patriotic _myth_ of America. Grant Wood gave the country what it wanted to see about itself and, in doing so, created an American icon.

[@gxtmfa]

He lived on a farm in Animosa until he was 10 in 1901. The population of Cedar Rapids when he moved there was 25,000- not a city, but definitely a town. I think you’ve gone too far in you characterization as well. Very few artists are truly “bumpkins” but I’d say he had some country in him.

[@jeff__w]

@@gxtmfa I think that’s a very fair comment-maybe my comment was unduly provocative. Perhaps it would have been better to say that Wood was no farmer himself-and, as you might say, very few artists truly are-and I guess people (or at least you and I) can differ on just how much of that “country” in him is reflected in _American Gothic_ and in what ways. (People have disagreed on whether and to what extent _American Gothic_ is an homage to or satire of midwestern American values since it first was publicly exhibited, an ambiguity that I think is key to its enduring appeal.)

[@Lunch_Meat]

The irony is that your own guardedness about middle American culture is reflected in the pitchfork and the painting, despite your claims that it's a myth. Speaking as someone born in the PNW, grew up in the mountain towns of colorado, and moved to the Midwest in my late teens/early twenties, I can say for sure that the myths about middle american farmers are all correct. Both the good ones and the bad ones. And that's the thing about myth. They come in all flavors. The same people who talk about the family values of the working class country small town family are the same people that send their gay son to California on a bus and call the pedophile in their midst the "funny uncle" you don't leave your kids with.

[@princetchalla2441]

@@Lunch_Meat I’m surprised people look at it so differently. I’ve met loads of people who seem to look like them and act really sweet so I’ve never been creeped out by them. They just remind me of the old folk I know, stern looking but not mean or creepy. As for the “creepy uncle” that’s surprisingly true. What do you even do with them anyways?

[@SevenUnwokenDreams]

Thank you for making this video. That painting always creeped me out as a child, and it still does. The man looks like he is hiding something back in that house, and he is trying to intimidate the viewer so we don't pry. His daughter looks like she's been sheltered but she knows that what's being hidden in that house is something dark. She wants to break free but she just can't. That's the story in my mind, anyway.

[@juniorjames7076]

And why does everyone assume the old man is "creepy" or evil, or hiding something "dark". People are projecting their own messed up psychological baggage.

[@pinguim_pistola]

​​@@juniorjames7076i can definitely see where people are coming from with this. The daughter just looks straight up worried and the man, if you look closely at his eyes, could be interpreted as distrustful of the viewer. Add to it how everything just looks way too perfect and normal and you got yourself a creepy painting or at least uncomfortable.

[@InsoIence]

@@juniorjames7076 Maybe they are, maybe they are not. Art is subjective after all and interpreting it is an activity in itself. Pondering, churning ideas and debating is part of art, which means different takes are welcome and can introduce you to foreign concepts. Mind you, author's goal can be different from future interpretations - and such is nature of art that lives past its inception. To me (as a foreigner) this painting has always felt... empty. Like an echoing scream but silence at the same time. Hard to describe, really. Don't get me wrong, it's full of expression. Nowadays it makes me think of cults and communes. It's very interesting to find that it has completely different effect on other people. Puts a smile on my face - just because. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@myriamickx7969]

​@juniorjames7076 Thanks for "their own messed up psychological baggage," really. This painting also has an ominous, dark message to me, as well. Same with many other commentators. I think you should not pass judgment on viewers’ subjectivity, even if they differ from yours.

[@badart3204]

@@juniorjames7076he is both ugly and stern. People don’t like ugly people and the lack of expression makes one wonder the intentions

[@DouggieDinosaur]

The tree above the woman's head is Bob Ross's afro.

[@PotatoPatatoVonSpudsworth]

His coming was foretold...

[@penelopegreene]

That was just a happy little accident...

[@VoodooAngel63]

This painting has always spoken to me because I am Iowan but also because the gentleman looks so similar that it could be my Papaw standing there. But I see something else, too represented by that lovely window. Iowa farmers tend to be successful due to the very good growing conditions and massive top soil in Iowa. The window in the house is not typical. It is a very beautiful and expensive element in the house. The farmer may look very stern but a look at the window indicates that he is able to provide a comfortable and lovely home for his daughter.

[@jamesslick4790]

"Gothic Revival" was a popular architectural style in the US during the 1850's -1860s among the wealthy. Easily reproduced elements filtered down to "vernacular" houses in the 1870s-80s. This seems to be an ordinary 1870s farmhouse with a bit of style added, it's a sign of a successful farmer who had an "eye" for the "nicer" things.

[@curiousworld7912]

I don't know about 'corn-fed, Midwestern, all-American values', but I think, like Thomas Hart Benton before him, Grant Wood was painting (with his own, personal intent) what he knew, what he saw, in a style that happened to be 'easy' to understand. Of course, both artists' training was influential - critics can be so reductive. I love the painting; it reminds me of old, tintype or daguerreotype photography, where the subjects had to hold still for a time, and so, rarely are smiling. I once drew a very detailed impression of what I called 'If I Could Build a House', which took direct inspiration from this painting - including the floor plan. :)

[@patriciafeehan7732]

So much goes on in this painting and it has a story to tell. Gothic means Church at the center of the painting you notice a church window, the plain daughter has tried to decorate the house with fancy lace curtains, the potted plants failing on the porch - She even tried a new hairdo, but it too seems to fall, then she pinned a beautiful broach to her collar. She seeks freedom from him but will not leave her father out of religious loyalty. My interpretation. There are still things in this painting that have not been discovered or understood. American Gothic

[@alexandredesouza3692]

I think the architecture and the clothing is understated. That house is uniformly american. Those clothes are or were only worn by rural middle west people. Farms and protective fathers exist all over the world. But that farm and that father could only exist in one region of one country.

[@musungu79]

This was actually the first time i saw this painting. Thanks for the video, cheers from Italy!

[@refugeinthewind]

My Sundays begin with looking for a new video from you. You never fail to open my mind. Thank you!❤

[@TheCanvasArtHistory]

Aww how sweet! Thanks!

[@sweetpepino1907]

This video really opened my eyes to what this painting is actually potentially about, and unlocked a deep appreciation for it. As a kid I'd see it on TV shows and think it was just some famous painting of an old farmer and his wife that was unintentionally creepy. Now I'm seeing how subtly sinister and dramatic it all is. In spite of the fact it's seemingly a commissioned painting of him and his prosperity, he's taken every step to pose in a threatening and closed off manner. In some way he obscures everything personal to him, you're barely even allowed to see his house let alone inside it. To me what changes this whole painting is the daughter's expression. It's so poignant yet inscrutable, it tells me there's something deeper to this story beyond being a simple front, but I can't tell what. Is there a dark secret in that house? Does she feel repressed by her overbearing father? Is she just sick of standing there being painted? Her face carries the immense weight of something, but we will never know what. The man will take his secrets to the grave, and you with him if you trespass into his life. He is the master of this domain.

[@raerae6422]

I love how you mentioned they are kind of blocking the house. I never noticed that aspect. Definitely adds to the suspicion that they are hiding something. Clever choice to close the curtain, instead of having it open and airing. Adds to them being closed-off and unwelcoming. I see a partial frown between her brows, like she is anxious her dad could do something terrible. The looking away is not wanting to engage so the person will hurry on their way. He has no frown, just that unwavering stare, like a predator that wont take its eye off its prey. He feels to me that he is almost wanting the unseen person to make a wrong move. So much unspoken aggression in his stare.

[@sweetpepino1907]

@@raerae6422 I really like how you referred to his stare as predatory. That's a great way to put it, it's emotionless, but dripping with intent. He's as aggressive as you can get without making overt threats.

[@giulyanoviniciussanssilva2947]

I don't close with the people of this region for stories, without a doubt I don't want to know up close to know.

[@FreddyDude]

I love this painting. I always saw the father and daughter looking serious but confident. I see it as a statement, the more ornate gothic window symbolising a hidden cultural richness to middle america, unseen by the urbanites who only accepted european high society as culturally rich. In a way turning things around and making the metropolitan cities look backwards for ignoring and moking rural people. As a european (portugal), I do see it as a uniquely american style, to me there's no myth. Great video that made me consider different interpretations and opened my eyes a little more. Thank you.

[@Dork2099]

I live about 45 minutes away from the Iowa town where this house sits, so this critique resonates with me. Thank you for the analysis!

[@hfdcjiirjmcfi]

I pass through Eldon a couple times a year between Ames and Alabama. I always make a stop!

[@ivratsdargy955]

I never saw the man as looking at the viewer, but looking past them, staring blankly out toward an empty countryside. He's not trying to protect his farm, but moreso reflecting on that it's all there is to him, as well as his family. He seems unaware of his daughter, as if she walked up from behind to just casually call him back inside for dinner or something. To me, it just reflects a feeling that i think a lot of Americans can relate to in one way or another: "This is all i have, all I *will* have, nothing more, nothing less"

[@melindadouglas1673]

I just saw this painting at the Art Institute in Chicago. We were told the man in the painting was the dentist of the artist. It was impressive to see in person.

[@josephwalsh7546]

This painting looks much more Gothic than specifically American. Change the clothes and it could be a painting of small farmers almost anywhere in Europe. The figures resemble the stiff columnar statues on the portico of many Gothic cathedrals and the Gothic window in the background reinforces it.

[@dimplesd8931]

As a African American kid growing up in the south in the 80’s I use to be afraid of this painting. Just like today racism was alive and kicking but unlike today there was no way to galvanize the collective unless something outrageous happened, Rodney King, and even then there was often no justice. I always thought the man’s look, stance was THE image of “I hate you people” or “You don’t belong here”.

[@ericktellez7632]

I have the exact same experience when I saw that painting, working construction and picking vegetables in the south of the USA under a visa, the look I got from the gringo ranchers reminded of the one in the painting just staring not really saying anything but making you aware they are supervising your movements

[@blicky_bobby]

Same. Always struck me as a very ‘good ole days’ type of painting.

[@DoctorNERO616]

​@@ericktellez7632 I'm sure the native plains Indians looked at the " gringos" in exactly the same way.

[@jakegarvin7634]

The painting just screams "So, you're going to have my daughter home by 11, *Right?*

[@julianf.wheeler3665]

As a kid, I thought of this as a painting of once typical folk. Upon learning its name, I saw the Gothic style all over it, including in the window, in the prongs of the pitchfork, and even the daughter’s part above her forehead. :-)

[@bifeldman]

I am always moved by the sumptuous brushwork, precisely controlled palette, and the virtuosity of the control. That the painting also unsettles is just one more thing to admire.

[@ampleparkingTV]

I first saw this painting when I was nine: my aunt had a print of it in her kitchen. It stayed with me forever, leaving a really eery impression even as a child.

[@webheadwonder9597]

Gotta laugh at a spicy, Midwest jab at New York from an art critic who wrote for the New Yorker

[@PETROVICGAMES]

For me it is a painting that kinda explain The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism from Weber.

[@liubovm9928]

I'm grateful that somehow I stumbled upon your channel. Thank you so much for all the beautiful video essays.

[@kalinystazvoruna8702]

I'm a Grant Wood fan. During University art classes I inadvertently did a pastel painting that actually mimics of of Grant Wood's art style. It's in my living room. "The figures were modeled by Wood's sister Nan Wood Graham and their dentist Dr. Byron McKeeby. " from Wikipedia

[@abracadaverous]

The elongation of the figures always made me think that they looked more Romanesque than Gothic, which gives the image another layer of meaning. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's the impact it has on me.

[@adoboarchives4738]

The way the old man stare is like Gus Fring from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul

[@BeeWhistler]

I can never seem to decide whether I find art analysis interesting or excessive. At first it feels like we’re gaining insight until it burrows so far in that it forgets where it was going in the first place and all you have are a bunch of holes… What gets me is knowing that whenever we analyze and critique art, no matter what the form, we’re often trying to artificially assign a meaning of our choosing to something that the artist may have just made for a quick buck, or that they always hated. And while that’s our prerogative as the audience, there’s always some nozzle who can’t simply have their own opinion… they have to state that opinion as fact and deman you share it. Pretty soon you have a bunch of frauds calling themselves art experts and declaring what it is and what it isn’t, announcing the colors of the year and making the fortunes of pretentious jerks, and pissing on the hard work of struggling artists because it’s so much more “meaningful” to view a mock up of an egg resting on a purple, spiky La-Z-Boy with a sign that reads “potate” all sitting in the center of the gallery while Stravinsky plays and a projector sends video of ocean waves rippling over it all. Price: $7 mil and the artist thought it up in about 10 minutes after waking up with a hangover.

[@EzraRobinson12]

For me it's that window, how sun-stained it is over time, probably never being pulled back to shed real light into the room it shields. Maybe there is a secret being hidden, maybe something telling about this man and his daughter, but you can also very easily place yourself into that room and feel what it's like to be there. Out there, both in historical period and geographic setting, out there is the classic Nothing of middle America, replete with all its imagery of beige and yellow corn stalks whirling in the afternoon summer breeze, and you can feel that too even if you are not directly familiar with it because that is the myth at the heart of it - that quiet ecstasy of sitting on the hardwood floor planks in that room behind the kitschy blue curtain overlooking a vast swath of crop, rough textures of your clothes and early age wrinkles over your hands and the austere white walls and siding of this house your granddad built with his bare hands, of course...in a world presented to us in sharp angles and rigid features the slight curve of the Gothic window vaulting towards the nave of the house suggests to us something so radically other than the landscape we see and the people within it.

[@DustyB]

Grant Wood is one of my favorite artist, I’ve enjoyed the video essays you’ve made on him

[@michaelwittmann8720]

one thing missing in this video is the time line ,, during that era i am sure this type of folks and area where they lived, wasn't all unicorns and rainbows, there was def a lot of hardship, mishaps, and sheer Hard Work, from sunrise to sunset!

[@midnightmosesuk]

The Gothic style window always evoked religious overtones to me, as it's reminiscent of a church window. I also find it interesting that, apart from trees, the only prominent thing in the far background is a church spire. These two people literally have a religious background. The tines of the man's pitchfork appear to be echoed in his overalls, the three points over his heart. He stands on guard, ready to protect the things he values, his home, his daughter and his religious belifs.

[@davidshepherd397]

Great video as usual, but don't forget that Green Acres used it as well which contributes to it's being mainstream

[@short-leggedturtle1315]

Pretty fascinating painting Open to a lot of interpretation

[@jamesslick4790]

There's not really odd about the window at all. "Gothic Revival" was a popular architectural style in the US during the 1850's -1860s among the wealthy. Easily reproduced elements filtered down to "vernacular" houses in the 1870s-80s. This seems to be an ordinary 1870s farmhouse. Buildings like it were still common in the 1920s and 30s.

[@LP-ow3kd]

Its a funeral. These people are stern looking sad looking due to a death. Midwest men only wear a black jacket like that for a funeral. Perhaps his wife.

[@constellationsarthistory]

The simultaneous bizarre/ banal in this work will forever be the core of this painting's success- both of which are overriding and the combination of the two utterly chilling

[@LiamBrannelly]

I loved your beautiful explanation/exposition of this painting (as well as your other video-essays): would it be possible for you to do a video on another American master, Andrew Wyeth? In particular, "Christina's World," an enigmatic painting with no easy interpretation, but so haunting!!

[@toweypat]

Oh wow, I just looked up that painting, and it's definitely enigmatic!

[@MountainRaven1960]

The farmer’s pitchfork is also mirrored in his overalls, when you look closely.

[@rosevan7845]

I find myself looking for the pitchfork everywhere, in his face, overalls, shirtfront and such. It interests me that I don't find it much in the daughter, that I can recognize, so I think she isn't a he77fire and brimstone kind of girl.

[@rosevan7845]

I think that is why her face is turned a little, so she doesn't look like a salad fork or something. She has such soft curves for such a harsh life.

[@rembeadgc]

Nice take and treatment but, what I loved just as much was the superb recording and playing of the upright bass in the background. A video could be done just on that and what it represents about America, just as gritty, simple and yet complex as the painting.

[@-xirx-]

You should do it! I'd watch it.

[@CosmicWaltz7]

This painting has always had a presence of "you don't belong here" to me. I was told years ago that the subjects were brother and sister, but father and daughter works much the same. Basically, that they're family, but not chosen family. They're the best outcome of a bad situation. And there's a sense of secrecy in the painting. That there's something you don't know, and that it's best it stay that way. I think this really captures the American Midwest frontier. Between the prairie madness, abusive incest, and twisted views of preexisting religions that came out of that great expanse in the 19th century; there's nothing more "American" than minding your own business and not looking too hard into what your neighbors are up to.

[@sunnyquinn3888]

My grandparents on my mother's side were farmers. They set themselves up to look like this and took a picture. 😅

[@MicaFarrierRheayan]

Let's face it. It is a beautiful painting, no matter how you look at it! It is rather whimsical, yet - still fall onto the pit of visually pleasing. People love something that out of norm every now and then. It's refreshing

[@KitschWall]

Crazy thing is, when i had to sculpt them for our 3d prints, at first had the feeling that something in their faces was odd, like as the painter tried to purposely make them slightly monstruos, but the more i worked on them the more i realized that were just normal and proportioned as someone you could meet at supermarket. I still can't get why the painting is so haunting, it's just magic

[@justasidecharacter5961]

this is the painting that everytime I look at it I get chills everything about this is so off so erie

[@giulyanoviniciussanssilva2947]

Without a doubt this painting is iconic enough to captivate outsiders and creators to work ideas upon, for me this painting is why subtle acting is so powerful,this static man represents a lot without any movement and threat he represented with more subtlety than any villain played with this acting technique.

[@jamieevans3666]

paitings about the midwest (a largely german descent area) become american gothic, how fitting

[@rusepoix]

This painting embodies American conservatism, including the modern overuse of the word "American" in titles; the father's long face, his narrow-mindedness; his daughter looking elsewhere, her desire to escape. If the father's proud and serious, she's clearly unhappy. They live in the past (cf. the Gothic window and the daughter's cameo necklace, very old-school for the 1930s). It's a satire that can be liked by the people it portrays, for they won't necessarily understand the second degree. According to Wikipedia, some did, but most ended up liking it anyway. The composition's weird, with little place for the sky. It's suffocating. Work (symbolized by the fork and overall), family and home are everything for the father-who has irises of different colors, if you look closely. The fork could be a reminder of Catholic Trinity, and it sure is a defense weapon. The man stands his ground.

[@VoiceDisasterNz]

Anybody know who made the work at 6:55?

[@legoqueen2445]

Love your videos so much! The first one I watched was on Dada and politics, it brought back my passion for art as activism! I didn't realise how dead I felt inside until I watched that video and a spark in me lit up again! Thankyou for your work❤

[@PrettyboyAshtun]

i just remember seeing this at some old restaurant when i was a kid

[@arlequinelunaire418]

The thing about the Old Masters drawing inspiration mainly from their immediate surroundings that I think Wood missed was that, well, back in the day they would've had to, due to how much more difficult travel was back then than in Wood's time

[@sewerslidepark6656]

Bro I’m just waiting until you talk about Tamara de lempika

[@piccalillipit9211]

YES...!

[@kinnytramell]

He did! He spoke about her Self Portrait!

[@TheCanvasArtHistory]

It was one of my first videos! I could maybe revisit her work one day! :)

[@kinnytramell]

@@TheCanvasArtHistory ohhh that would be fabulous! In fact, Try “Le Jeune Fille Aux Gants” or perhaps one of her glamorous jewels of the 30’s!

[@geejee1255]

As non american and not really used to this painting i think its eerie because of technique. America is a mash of cultures and this painting is amash of techniques imo. Like realistic but not entirely, with odd forms and cold colors. I dont know, the authors self portrait is not entirely cosy either

[@petersolomon5227]

An interesting video essay on a painting that remains arresting to this day. From what I have read Grant Wood found mid Western rural life in the 1930s socially oppressive and somewhat Victorian. Little is known of his personal life. In any event it would be easy to draw the conclusion that unlike other pre WW2 American regionalists (Curry and Benton, etc), Wood was not heterosexual. This could go someway to explain the level of parody, satire and decorative detail he brought to his painting.

[@johnnystall9683]

Thank you, very well done!!!!!

[@TheCanvasArtHistory]

Thank YOU Johnny!!

[@hori166]

The background information is essential to understanding and appreciating AG. The woman is Grant Wood's sister and the stern faced man is his dentist. Grant was gay and lived with his mother and sister in a mortuary compound. This "American" style is a composite of Shaker and Scandinavian heritages. When paired with Wood's life it raises more questions than answers. One also has to respect Wood's own words regarding AG.

[@maru4361]

Andrew Wyeth comes close to the myth of Wood. His father was his teacher, he developed his own style, painted only in Maine and PA. But he has influences. Far fewer than most. And his paintings are strikingly unique.

[@dudeidontcare3430]

What strikes me about this video is how everyone keeps saying it's "so American" but really when I see these people, I'm reminded of America's protestant, European roots. These people look like Dutch or German farmers straight out of the 1500s. I'm reminded of the very time and place that Mr Wood admired so much, that of the old Flemish masters.

[@Treppy_Gecky]

I just want to brag I've been to the house in Eldon, IA since I'm an Iowa native. I wasn't able to go inside it was closed but it was fun visiting lol

[@victorviterbo3952]

The irony of the window is amazing, I hadn’t ever thought of it. How could anything, be it a painting or an architectural style, be “purely American” and also “gothic”? A country that builds an imitation of a XV century gothic church window in a farmhouse in the North American midwest can never claim to be free of outside influences. The myth of America as a blank slate, a free plot of land to build a new nation, is so strong that most Americans never even think of it as fabricated. Fabricated by europeans. I wonder if there’s any evidence that this was Grant Wood’s actual intention though

[@59jaguar]

Stark realism rather than your creepy secretive description. I don’t think there’s any dark meaning in the painting. It simply is what it is.

[@josedorsaith5261]

It was a really creepy 'analysis'

[@boy-si4sh]

i seriously need some art history reading recommendations 🙏

[@grimtheghastly8878]

Yhe way you described the old man and the daughter reminds me a lot of an songer by the name of Ethel Cain. Her style is heavily influenced by the southern/midwestern gothic aesthetic and art movement and deals with themes of abuse, intergenerational trauma, religious trauma, and familiy secrets and this painting is exactly what ipocture when i listen to her debut album

[@amberly0317]

The woman looks like Jennifer Anniston if she ever aged

[@crusherbmx]

It's a simple painting. A man stading in front of all that he has accomplished, holding the tool he used to achieve these things, and with an expression that represents the no-nonsense attitude that got him here. The American Dream. I don't think it's anything more than that.

[@mrmosty5167]

Wood: You mind if I paint you folks? Farmer: Get away from my daughter boi...

[@mikemiller659]

The opening for Green Acres helped

[@antonioaleixo5939]

What's the music you use under The Composition? 1:32

[@oaktreesewede5152]

I can actually say the same about Carl Larsson (nowdays) in Sweden. Many people ove him becaous of nationalism. And i think its amazing, but its the same with your video about Mona Lisa. In Sweden Carl Larsson usally is the first and only contact the ordinary person have with art in Sweden. And it usally stops there. Carl Larson painted amazing works but there are houndreds of other amazing painters in Sweden that never gets to se the light of day, maby becaous of Carl Larsson. Thank you, YET again for a very intersting video! :D

[@sambrown9052]

Personally I'm from southern Minnesota (close to Iowa) and I have a few farmers in my family. In a weird way I understand the mindset of this painting. "This is mine, I own this land. I work from sunrise to sunset. Don't come at me or try to take it because I'll screw you over." It's violence with a weird sense of Justice ingrained with the culture.

[@higherquality]

Because the painting is frozen in time, it looks like the man is just staring. Staring is a sign of dominance or anxienty. Getting ready to fight or flight. The pitchfork would be seen as the weapon. So the brain instantly turns to him wanting to fight.

[@numbersix8919]

This here painting was done made in 19 hundred and 30. Thank yew.

[@Chris-2-of-3]

She has her mother's eyes.

[@williamhardee8863]

I feel like this was a reason the painting got famous, but not the sole or main reason it became popular.

[@MeatyPeach]

Love this painting and actually have made an homage art piece of it myself since it is so universally understood as part of the American identity. But I hadn’t thought about the nationalism aspect of why it’s so universally resonant and despite initially bristling because nationalism can be such a fraught word, I do agree. This is the American work ethic. The sometimes bleak reality that can’t take your pride in your work and ability to stand tall away. Seeing your ancestors literally - as if it were from a family photo album and thinking about how their reality paved the way for yours. Myth making about the past or the quiet dignity of hard labor that ages you before your time and how the stories we tell ourselves are sometimes the justification or understanding we need to keep going. Being represented in art standing tall despite not being elite - it feels especially poignant sometimes as hillbillies or people in rural communities with largely physical jobs (which is my whole family until this generation) are open season for joking about in terms of the lack of sophistication or assumed lack of intelligence or any number of things that forget the humanity of fellow hardworking Americans. It’s pride in an image that could be ripped from a family photo album but painted in oils with a mastery that the people in the photos couldn’t afford to commission, yet there they are looking dignified but it’s also universal because so many of us likely feel represented by the subjects in the painting but due to different specifics as to why we are reflected in the usually overlooked subjects of American Gothic. I could go on forever….but you are right it evokes a core part of American identity, a need to be taken seriously despite relative newness and any number of stereotypes about flyover states or the comparative perceived lack of sophistication. Excellent presentation and analysis as usual. Your videos always make my day a little better and are still a good reminder to spend more time looking at, thinking about, and making art.

[@Endymion766]

I like it. Great video! I wish I had a big house so I could buy replicas of some classic paintings and hang them up.

[@danielpopescu8050]

Your videos are getting better and better, and that makes me very happy, i’m happy to see a such beautiful growth

[@mdude625]

The man was Wood’s dentist The woman was his sister

[@mdude625]

Wood’s sister

[@s.g.7572]

To me, the farmer and his daughter don't look creepy or threatening, but rather awkward. The father is stood upright stiff and rigid, not looking relaxed at all despite being ostensibly in his own home. He's holding his pitchfork like he doesn't really know how to use it, clutching onto it as a source of stability. The daughter can't even look us in the eyes. It all feels like they aren't in their comfort zone - like some random yuppie artist just came up to them and demanded to paint them or take their picture, and they'd much rather be getting on with their day's work. It speaks to this conflict you were talking about, where America has such a strong economic identity but not quite as strong an artistic one - here is one symbol of America, the hard working farmers, and here is this other symbol of America, this exciting young artist, and neither one can quite meet in the middle.

[@axvlnmusic3188]

Can anybody tell me what that painting at 07:20 is called? Much appreciated

[@swarr5152]

I think if it was called “serial killer”. The context would be different 😅

[@skeeter9505]

i always loved grant wood

[@superpear64]

the dad looks like your average 78 year-old farmer who has a sign on his lawn saying ''trespassers will be shot/stabbed'' and then right beside it ''survivors will be shot/stabbed again''

[@Xeronimo74]

What about the pitchfork being reflected in the man's clothes?

[@cgautz]

Interesting that the house was as much the subject of the painting as the people in it.

[@acidgougewaltz]

until deep in the 20th century, most of the american population lived rural lives. therefore most american lived this life or knew or were related to somebody who lived like this. these were a proud people who's hard work ensured that america would be the first nation in history never to experience famine. as a nation these hard working, devout, and upright people were respected and appreciated. those who see creepiness in this picture are projecting. they see goodness and in their hearts they can scarce believe it is as it seems because they themselves lack the kind of moral fiber required to lead so humble and simple of a life. the painting is popular because it is a touching homage to an american archetype. it is purity and goodness of that archetype that shocks many fans of modern art for whom art only has meaning when transgressing.

[@EV-wp1fj]

It's neither creepy nor hostile and it's more surrealist than realist. The expression of the farmer is self-aware, a bit self-conscious even. Perhaps a bit prideful. It also has the look of portraiture from the time it embodies -- which isn't really 1930 but meant to be a little earlier, perhaps a generation prior. You didn't touch upon the inspiration of the photo, which is house (it exists) and the window. The person who built that house likely upcycled the window from an old church and Wood took inspiration from it and invented these figures.

[@looselytelling]

I just watched the Vox video on Wood, perfect timing again

[@adamweilergurarye5422]

Thank you!

[@olddoggeleventy2718]

Mitch has been around for a long time.

[@andrewwebb9426]

It’s American Regionalism, a movement supported by FDR New Deal programmes. This painting seems to be iconic to Americans but when I introduced it as a good example of Regionalism to my English art group, nobody had ever seen it! I agree about it having a hint of tension and danger and,to me,the farmer comes over as just about holding it in whilst his daughter is stoically hoping he doesn’t loose it completely. She’s scared. Where’s the wife? I’ve never really held to the ‘country bumpkin’ theory but the fact that there’s two entirely opposite interpretations surely makes it an ‘interesting’ picture even if not likable. I’d never have it on my own wall! Far too creepy.

[@doriangel97]

Its wild because I’m not american, coming from the caribbean its hard to look at this and think anythkng other than “that’s based on a nightmare someone had”. To think this is a look into north america makes me deeply sad, the underlying culture is so cold and fake and deprived of true joy and life.

[@golwenlothlindel]

We're all just not going to talk about how the Old Masters are inextricably linked to both Gothic cathedrals and the conquest of the Americas? Columbus sailed in 1492. The King of England was Henry VII. The Ghent Altarpiece by the Van Eyck brothers was installed in 1432, and the Wedding at Cana by Gerard David was painted around 1500. Sure, they did do secular portraits, but most of their works were sacred and paid for by the Catholic Church. A Catholic Church that had grown fat on plundering first the Holy Land and then the Americas. Indeed, the figures in this American Gothic painting, might have walked straight out of a David picture. They neither belong in their late 19th Century clothes, nor standing in front of an Iowa farmhouse. The Gothic period, in American history, is not synonymous with elegance but with brutality. The conquests of Hernan Cortez and Francisco Pizarro, and indeed the name "America" arbitrarily applied by a European cartographer who had never seen the continents (1507). The mass enslavement and genocide of the indigenous cultures in Central and South America. A history that us English-speaking people usually fail to acknowledge. We go straight from the Italian Renaissance to Jamestown. If the conquistadors are talked about at all, we make it sound like they were contemporaries of Shakespeare rather than Michelangelo. To make a Gothic window in Iowa, is a violent act. To put it on this farmhouse, makes it's inherent brutality clear. The daughter seems like she wants to talk about this history, but her father will not allow it. Did the artist intend that? Perhaps, perhaps not. But it's inherent in what he chose to paint and how.

[@TheRunningLeopard]

At least for myself, while the painting does have an inherent underlying creepiness, it stems from me Grant Wood's own feeling of being separated from the surrounding "American-ness". He was a gay man, who lived in conservative Iowa during an incredibly nationalistic time. And as a transmasc queer man, who now lives in an increasingly conservative and dangerous Iowa, I see the look of these folk as the empty drowning hate that has filled the eyes of those I see pass through my work. Whatever homeliness that supposedly made up that "Iowa nice" is gone, if it was ever there, now there is only suspicion. While I wouldn't call it violent, there is an unease quiet that could fade at any point, just like the false niceness of many of the folks who live here. Not saying my reading means more than others, but I feel like highlighting the views of queer rural IIowans who still live in these kind of communities should be noted.