Grant Wood: American Gothic and Other Fables

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

NOW CLOSED

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (1931), Grant Wood. © Figge Art Museum, successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; courtesy Art Resource, NY

Grant Wood’s American Gothic is perhaps the most recognisable painting in 20th century American art. But there are many other sides to the artists’ career. This exhibition brings together his early Arts and Crafts decorative objects and Impressionist oils as well as his later paintings, murals, and book illustrations. Wood sought to create a reassuringly consistent world during a time of economic distress and social upheaval. Yet underneath the bucolic exterior of his work, Wood skilfully conveyed society’s anxieties, creating images that speak both to American identity and to the estrangement and isolation of modern life. Find out more about the Grant Wood exhibition from the Whitney Museum of American Art’s website.

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The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (1931), Grant Wood. © Figge Art Museum, successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; courtesy Art Resource, NY

Boy Milking Cow (1932), Grant Wood. © Figge Art Museum, successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photograph: Mark Tade

American Gothic (1930), Grant Wood. © Figge Art Museum, successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photograph: Art Institute of Chicago/Art Resource, NY