American Gothic
Encyclopedia
American Gothic is a painting
by Grant Wood
, in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago
. Wood's inspiration came from a cottage
designed in the Gothic Revival
style with a distinctive upper window and a decision to paint the house along with "the kind of people I fancied should live in that house." The painting shows a farmer standing beside his spinster
daughter. The figures were modeled by the artist's dentist and sister. The woman is dressed in a colonial print apron mimicking 19th century Americana
and the couple are in the traditional roles of men and women, the man's pitchfork
symbolizing hard labor, and the flowers over the woman's right shoulder suggesting domesticity.
It is one of the most familiar images in 20th century American art
, and one of the most parodied artworks within American popular culture
.
In 1930, Grant Wood, an American painter with European training, noticed the Dibble House
, a small white house built in the Carpenter Gothic
architectural style in Eldon, Iowa
. Wood decided to paint the house along with "the kind of people I fancied should live in that house." He recruited his sister Nan
(1899–1990) to model the woman, dressing her in a colonial print apron mimicking 19th century Americana
. The man is modeled on Wood's dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby (1867–1950) from Cedar Rapids, Iowa
. The three-pronged hay fork is echoed in the stitching of the man's overalls, the Gothic window of the house and the structure of the man's face. Each element was painted separately; the models sat separately and never stood in front of the house.
. The judges deemed it a "comic valentine," but a museum patron convinced them to award the painting the bronze medal and $300 cash prize. The patron also convinced the Art Institute to buy the painting, which remains there today. The image soon began to be reproduced in newspapers, first by the Chicago Evening Post
and then in New York
, Boston
, Kansas City
, and Indianapolis
. However, Wood received a backlash when the image finally appeared in the Cedar Rapids Gazette
. Iowans were furious at their depiction as "pinched, grim-faced, puritanical Bible-thumpers". One farmwife threatened to bite Wood's ear off. Wood protested that he had not painted a caricature of Iowans but a depiction of Americans. Nan, apparently embarrassed at being depicted as the wife of someone twice her age, began telling people that the painting was of a man and his daughter, which Grant seems to confirm in a letter written by him to a Mrs. Nellie Sudduth in 1941.
Art critics who had favorable opinions about the painting, such as Gertrude Stein
and Christopher Morley
, also assumed the painting was meant to be a satire of rural small-town life. It was thus seen as part of the trend toward increasingly critical depictions of rural America, along the lines of Sherwood Anderson
's 1919 Winesburg, Ohio
, Sinclair Lewis
's 1920 Main Street
, and Carl Van Vechten
's The Tattooed Countess in literature.
However, with the onset of the Great Depression
, the painting came to be seen as a depiction of steadfast American pioneer spirit. Wood assisted this transition by renouncing his Bohemian youth in Paris
and grouping himself with populist Midwestern painters, such as John Steuart Curry
and Thomas Hart Benton
, who revolted against the dominance of East Coast art circles. Wood was quoted in this period as stating, "All the good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow."
The Depression-era understanding of the painting as a depiction of an authentically American scene prompted the first well-known parody, a 1942 photo by Gordon Parks
of cleaning woman Ella Watson, shot in Washington, D.C.
American Gothic is one of the few paintings to reach the status of cultural icon, along with Leonardo da Vinci
's Mona Lisa
and Edvard Munch
's The Scream
. It is thus one of the most reproduced – and parodied
– images ever. Many artists have replaced the two people with other known couples and replaced the house with well known houses.
References and parodies of the image have been numerous for generations, appearing regularly in such media as postcard
s, magazine
s, animated cartoons, advertisements, comic book
s, album cover
s, television shows and other artist
s, such as Tony Juliano
s parody, "American Goths" which depicts goth
teens instead of the traditional farmers. The cinematic posters of the films For Richer or Poorer
, Son In Law
, American Gothic
, and Good Fences
parody the painting. Characters in The Rocky Horror Picture Show
pose as the couple during musical segments. The lead stars of Green Acres
, Eva Gabor
and Eddie Albert
, pose similarly to the couple in the painting in the opening of the show. In a 1962 episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show
, Rob and Laura buy a painting which turns out to be a copy of American Gothic. The memorable 1960s commercial for General Mills
' New Country Corn Flakes centers on the painting. It is also a key motif in Anthony Weigh's play 2,000 Feet Away
, which opens with a scene featuring the painting at the Art Institute.
A sculpture entitled "God Bless America" that features the American Gothic couple went on display in Chicago, Illinois, just south of the Tribune Tower
on the Magnificent Mile
of Michigan Avenue
, in December 2008 but has been removed as of February 26, 2010. Postcard
s mimicking the couple with sitting US President
s, Presidential nominee
s, and their spouses are popular commercial products. Ohio State Buckeyes
football games feature the painting on their scoreboard; within a few seconds of its display, the man's eyes bug out and his tongue wags. The Smashing Pumpkins
borrowed the title for their 2008 EP American Gothic, as did a 1995 television horror series created by Shaun Cassidy
. Elton John
and RuPaul
portray the couple on the video for "Don't Go Breaking My Heart
". Astrovamps
parodied the painting on the cover of their album, American Gothik. The Ma and Pa couple at the beginning of the Doctor Who
episode "Gridlock
" are fashioned in the style of the couple in the painting. The American Gothic couple have even been reinterpreted as Living Dead Dolls twice, in 2004 and 2009.
The painting is parodied on the cover of American Skathic, a 1995 collection of ska
music from the Midwest
with cover art by Evan Dorkin
. In it, the man and woman are shown in mod fashion and the man is holding a trombone
.
A parody of American Gothic, in which the head of the farmer is not shown, is seen as one of the pictures Pee-wee Herman
pulls down in the Picturephone in the Pee-wee's Playhouse
episode "Miss Yvonne's Visit". The woman's eyes are bugged out, as if in a state of shock, and more of the house is shown.
American Gothic is parodied on the cover of POSTAL2: Apocalypse Weekend
in which the farmer is replaced with Postal Dude, the spinster daughter is replaced with one of the Postal Babes, and the sky is replaced with what appears to be a picture of one of the Operation: CASTLE
tests, possibly Castle ROMEO
. The painting itself can also be seen in the main menu. The Desperate Housewives
title sequence also features the American Gothic iconography.
In the opening scene of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
, Richard O'Brien
and Patricia Quinn
appear as a farmer and his wife in parody of American Gothic. They are joined by a daughter dressed in the same fashion. A copy of the painting can be seen at the beginning of the "Time Warp". The painting is referenced once again near the end of the movie when Riff uses a laser/stun gun on Columbia, Frank and Rocky that is patterned on the pitchfork that the farmer holds.
In the Disney version of Mulan
, two of Mulan's ancestors are seen posing in the style of the painting.
In the "Human Again" song added on the special edition DVD release of the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast
, the characters of Mrs. Potts and Cogsworth are seen posing in the style of the painting.
The 2011 novel The Butterfly and the Flame by Dana De Young, features the American Gothic. In the novel's setting, which occurs in the year 2404, the painting is owned by the novel's antagonist, David Marsh. It is mentioned that the painting was partially burned at some point in the past.
In "The Simpsons" Season 5 Episode 12, "Bart Gets an Elephant
", 'American Gothic' is shown hanging in the living room of the Simpson family. While Bart is cleaning, he disfigures the painting, revealing, "If you can read this, you scrubbed too hard. - Grant Wood".
In "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
" Season 2 Episode 6, "The Cutie Pox", 'American Gothic' in pony version is shown hanging on Apple Bloom's wall.
In the Season 6 Episode 7 of Dexter
on Showtime, lead character Dexter and the apparition of his brother, Brian, portray "American Gothic" while standing over the body of the motel manager.
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
by Grant Wood
Grant Wood
Grant DeVolson Wood was an American painter, born four miles east of Anamosa, Iowa. He is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest, particularly the painting American Gothic, an iconic image of the 20th century.- Life and career :His family moved to Cedar Rapids after his...
, in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
. Wood's inspiration came from a cottage
American Gothic House
The American Gothic House, also known as the Dibble House, is an iconic Carpenter Gothic house in Eldon, Iowa. It was the backdrop of the 1930 painting American Gothic by Grant Wood...
designed in the Gothic Revival
Carpenter Gothic
Carpenter Gothic, also sometimes called Carpenter's Gothic, and Rural Gothic, is a North American architectural style-designation for an application of Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massing applied to wooden structures built by house-carpenters...
style with a distinctive upper window and a decision to paint the house along with "the kind of people I fancied should live in that house." The painting shows a farmer standing beside his spinster
Spinster
A spinster, or old maid, is an older, childless woman who has never been married.For a woman to be identified as a spinster, age is critical...
daughter. The figures were modeled by the artist's dentist and sister. The woman is dressed in a colonial print apron mimicking 19th century Americana
Americana
Americana refers to artifacts, or a collection of artifacts, related to the history, geography, folklore and cultural heritage of the United States. Many kinds of material fall within the definition of Americana: paintings, prints and drawings; license plates or entire vehicles, household objects,...
and the couple are in the traditional roles of men and women, the man's pitchfork
Pitchfork
A pitchfork is an agricultural tool with a long handle and long, thin, widely separated pointed tines used to lift and pitch loose material, such as hay, leaves, grapes, dung or other agricultural materials. Pitchforks typically have two or three tines...
symbolizing hard labor, and the flowers over the woman's right shoulder suggesting domesticity.
It is one of the most familiar images in 20th century American art
American Art
American Art is the debut album of the band Weatherbox. It was released on May 8, 2007 on Doghouse Records. The album received critical acclaim from several sources including underground music distribution company Smartpunk, who lauded the band's style:...
, and one of the most parodied artworks within American popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
.
Creation
American Gothic House
The American Gothic House, also known as the Dibble House, is an iconic Carpenter Gothic house in Eldon, Iowa. It was the backdrop of the 1930 painting American Gothic by Grant Wood...
, a small white house built in the Carpenter Gothic
Carpenter Gothic
Carpenter Gothic, also sometimes called Carpenter's Gothic, and Rural Gothic, is a North American architectural style-designation for an application of Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massing applied to wooden structures built by house-carpenters...
architectural style in Eldon, Iowa
Eldon, Iowa
Eldon is a city in Wapello County, Iowa, United States. The population was 998 at the 2000 census. Eldon is the site of the small Carpenter Gothic style house that has come to be known as the American Gothic House because Grant Wood used it for the background in his famous 1930 painting American...
. Wood decided to paint the house along with "the kind of people I fancied should live in that house." He recruited his sister Nan
Nan Wood Graham
Nan Wood Graham was the sister of painter Grant Wood. She is best known as the model for the woman in her brother's most famous painting, American Gothic. She married Edward Graham, a real estate investor; and spent the rest of her life as a historian for her brother's work. She died at a nursing...
(1899–1990) to model the woman, dressing her in a colonial print apron mimicking 19th century Americana
Americana
Americana refers to artifacts, or a collection of artifacts, related to the history, geography, folklore and cultural heritage of the United States. Many kinds of material fall within the definition of Americana: paintings, prints and drawings; license plates or entire vehicles, household objects,...
. The man is modeled on Wood's dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby (1867–1950) from Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and east of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city...
. The three-pronged hay fork is echoed in the stitching of the man's overalls, the Gothic window of the house and the structure of the man's face. Each element was painted separately; the models sat separately and never stood in front of the house.
Reception
Wood entered the painting in a competition at the Art Institute of ChicagoArt Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
. The judges deemed it a "comic valentine," but a museum patron convinced them to award the painting the bronze medal and $300 cash prize. The patron also convinced the Art Institute to buy the painting, which remains there today. The image soon began to be reproduced in newspapers, first by the Chicago Evening Post
Chicago Evening Post
The Chicago Evening Post was a daily newspaper published in Chicago from March 1, 1886 until 1932. The newspaper was founded as a penny paper during the technological paradigm-shift created by the invention of linotype technology, and failed during the Great Depression...
and then in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Kansas City
Kansas City Metropolitan Area
The Kansas City Metropolitan Area is a fifteen-county metropolitan area that is anchored by Kansas City, Missouri and is bisected by the border between the states of Missouri and Kansas. As of the 2010 Census, the metropolitan area has a population of 2,035,334. The metropolitan area is the...
, and Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
. However, Wood received a backlash when the image finally appeared in the Cedar Rapids Gazette
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids)
The Gazette is a daily newspaper published in the American city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The first paper was published as an evening journal, as the Evening Gazette on Wednesday January 10, 1883 and sold for 3¢; it presently sells for 75¢. The newspaper is distributed throughout northeast and east...
. Iowans were furious at their depiction as "pinched, grim-faced, puritanical Bible-thumpers". One farmwife threatened to bite Wood's ear off. Wood protested that he had not painted a caricature of Iowans but a depiction of Americans. Nan, apparently embarrassed at being depicted as the wife of someone twice her age, began telling people that the painting was of a man and his daughter, which Grant seems to confirm in a letter written by him to a Mrs. Nellie Sudduth in 1941.
Art critics who had favorable opinions about the painting, such as Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
and Christopher Morley
Christopher Morley
Christopher Morley was an American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet. He also produced stage productions for a few years and gave college lectures.-Biography:Christopher Morley was born in Haverford, Pennsylvania...
, also assumed the painting was meant to be a satire of rural small-town life. It was thus seen as part of the trend toward increasingly critical depictions of rural America, along the lines of Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson was an American novelist and short story writer. His most enduring work is the short story sequence Winesburg, Ohio. Writers he has influenced include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, J. D. Salinger, and Amos Oz.-Early life:Anderson was born in Clyde, Ohio,...
's 1919 Winesburg, Ohio
Winesburg, Ohio (novel)
Winesburg, Ohio is a 1919 short story cycle by the American author Sherwood Anderson. The work is structured around the life of protagonist George Willard, from the time he was a child to his growing independence and ultimate abandonment of Winesburg as a young man...
, Sinclair Lewis
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of...
's 1920 Main Street
Main Street (novel)
- Plot summary :Carol Milford is a liberal, free-spirited young woman, reared in the metropolis of Saint Paul, Minnesota. She marries Will Kennicott, a doctor, who is a small-town boy at heart....
, and Carl Van Vechten
Carl van Vechten
Carl Van Vechten was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein.-Biography:...
's The Tattooed Countess in literature.
However, with the onset of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, the painting came to be seen as a depiction of steadfast American pioneer spirit. Wood assisted this transition by renouncing his Bohemian youth in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and grouping himself with populist Midwestern painters, such as John Steuart Curry
John Steuart Curry
John Steuart Curry was an American painter whose career spanned from 1924 until his death. He was noted for his paintings depicting life in his home state, Kansas...
and Thomas Hart Benton
Thomas Hart Benton (painter)
Thomas Hart Benton was an American painter and muralist. Along with Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, he was at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement. His fluid, almost sculpted paintings showed everyday scenes of life in the United States...
, who revolted against the dominance of East Coast art circles. Wood was quoted in this period as stating, "All the good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow."
Parodies
The Depression-era understanding of the painting as a depiction of an authentically American scene prompted the first well-known parody, a 1942 photo by Gordon Parks
Gordon Parks
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was a groundbreaking American photographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist and film director...
of cleaning woman Ella Watson, shot in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
American Gothic is one of the few paintings to reach the status of cultural icon, along with Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
's Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa is a portrait by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is a painting in oil on a poplar panel, completed circa 1503–1519...
and Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker and an important forerunner of expressionist art. His best-known composition, The Scream, is part of a series The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety.- Childhood :Edvard Munch...
's The Scream
The Scream
Scream is the title of Expressionist paintings and prints in a series by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, showing an agonized figure against a blood red sky...
. It is thus one of the most reproduced – and parodied
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
– images ever. Many artists have replaced the two people with other known couples and replaced the house with well known houses.
References and parodies of the image have been numerous for generations, appearing regularly in such media as postcard
Postcard
A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....
s, magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s, animated cartoons, advertisements, comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s, album cover
Album cover
An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10" and 12" 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records , or the front-facing...
s, television shows and other artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
s, such as Tony Juliano
Tony Juliano
Tony Juliano is a satirist painter in Orange, Connecticut and is affiliated with the international art movement Stuckism.-Life and work:Tony Juliano was born in 1975...
s parody, "American Goths" which depicts goth
Goth subculture
The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...
teens instead of the traditional farmers. The cinematic posters of the films For Richer or Poorer
For Richer or Poorer
For Richer or Poorer is a 1997 comedy film starring Tim Allen and Kirstie Alley. It is rated PG-13 for some sexual innuendo and one use of strong language.-Plot :...
, Son In Law
Son in Law
Son in Law is a 1993 comedy film starring Pauly Shore, Carla Gugino, Lane Smith, Cindy Pickett, Tiffani Thiessen, Patrick Renna, Dan Gauthier and Dennis Burkley.-Plot:...
, American Gothic
American Gothic (film)
American Gothic is a 1988 horror film written by Burt Wetanson and Michael Vines and directed by John Hough. It stars Rod Steiger, Yvonne DeCarlo and Michael J. Pollard.-Plot:...
, and Good Fences
Good Fences
Good Fences, starring Whoopi Goldberg , Danny Glover, Ryan Michelle Bathe Ashley Archer and Mo'Nique, is a made-for-TV movie that debuted in 2003. It is about the stresses of prejudice on an upwardly mobile black family in 1970s Connecticut. Danny Glover plays the overworked, stressed husband...
parody the painting. Characters in The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...
pose as the couple during musical segments. The lead stars of Green Acres
Green Acres
Green Acres is an American television series starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm...
, Eva Gabor
Eva Gabor
Eva Gabor was a Hungarian-born socialite and actress. She was widely known for her role on Green Acres as Lisa Douglas, the wife of Eddie Albert's character, Oliver Wendell Douglas, Duchess in the 1970 Disney film The Aristocats, and Miss Bianca in Disney's The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under...
and Eddie Albert
Eddie Albert
Edward Albert Heimberger , known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing...
, pose similarly to the couple in the painting in the opening of the show. In a 1962 episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom that initially aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from October 3, 1961, until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. It was produced by Reiner with Bill Persky and Sam Denoff....
, Rob and Laura buy a painting which turns out to be a copy of American Gothic. The memorable 1960s commercial for General Mills
General Mills
General Mills, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 corporation, primarily concerned with food products, which is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. The company markets many well-known brands, such as Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Colombo, Totinos, Jeno's, Pillsbury, Green...
' New Country Corn Flakes centers on the painting. It is also a key motif in Anthony Weigh's play 2,000 Feet Away
2,000 Feet Away
2,000 Feet Away is a play by the young British playwright Anthony Weigh. The play is a portrait of small-town life in the Midwest, with fear and intolerance a key theme. It is set primarily in Eldon, Iowa, which provided the setting for Grant Wood's famous painting American Gothic...
, which opens with a scene featuring the painting at the Art Institute.
A sculpture entitled "God Bless America" that features the American Gothic couple went on display in Chicago, Illinois, just south of the Tribune Tower
Tribune Tower
The Tribune Tower is a neo-Gothic building located at 435 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Company. WGN Radio also broadcasts from the building, with ground-level studios overlooking nearby Pioneer Court and Michigan Avenue. CNN's...
on the Magnificent Mile
Magnificent Mile
The Magnificent Mile, sometimes referred to as The Mag Mile, is a neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, that runs along a portion of Michigan Avenue extending from the Chicago River to Oak Street in the Near North Side community area. The district is located adjacent to downtown; it is also one block...
of Michigan Avenue
Michigan Avenue (Chicago)
Michigan Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago which runs at 100 east south of the Chicago River and at 132 East north of the river from 12628 south to 950 north in the Chicago street address system...
, in December 2008 but has been removed as of February 26, 2010. Postcard
Postcard
A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....
s mimicking the couple with sitting US President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
s, Presidential nominee
Presidential nominee
In United States politics and government, the term presidential nominee has two distinct meanings.The first is the person chosen by the primary voters and caucus-goers of a political party to be the party's nominee for President of the United States...
s, and their spouses are popular commercial products. Ohio State Buckeyes
Ohio State Buckeyes
The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate sports teams and players of The Ohio State University, named after the state tree, the Buckeye. The Buckeyes participate in the NCAA's Division I in all sports and the Big Ten Conference in most sports...
football games feature the painting on their scoreboard; within a few seconds of its display, the man's eyes bug out and his tongue wags. The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band that formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1988. Formed by Billy Corgan frontman and James Iha , the band has included Jimmy Chamberlin , D'arcy Wretzky , and currently includes Jeff Schroeder Mike Byrne , and Nicole Fiorentino The Smashing...
borrowed the title for their 2008 EP American Gothic, as did a 1995 television horror series created by Shaun Cassidy
Shaun Cassidy
Shaun Paul Cassidy is an American actor, singer, writer, and producer. He is the eldest son of Academy Award winning actress Shirley Jones, and the second son of Tony award-winning actor Jack Cassidy...
. Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
and RuPaul
RuPaul
RuPaul Andre Charles , best known as simply RuPaul, is an American actor, drag queen, model, author, and singer-songwriter, who first became widely known in the 1990s when he appeared in a wide variety of television programs, films, and musical albums. Previously, he was a fixture on the Atlanta...
portray the couple on the video for "Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Don't Go Breaking My Heart
"Don't Go Breaking My Heart" is a duet by Elton John and Kiki Dee. It was written by Elton John with Bernie Taupin under the pseudonym "Ann Orson" and "Carte Blanche" , and intended as an affectionate pastiche of the Tamla Motown style, notably the various duets recorded by Marvin Gaye and singers...
". Astrovamps
Astrovamps
Astrovamps were an American deathrock group. It was formed in the early 1990s by Daniel Ian andEyajo Joseph.-History:Astrovamps released their first two records on cassette from 1991–1993, "Savage Garden" and "Blood And Flowers." In 1992,...
parodied the painting on the cover of their album, American Gothik. The Ma and Pa couple at the beginning of the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
episode "Gridlock
Gridlock
The term gridlock is defined as "A state of severe road congestion arising when continuous queues of vehicles block an entire network of intersecting streets, bringing traffic in all directions to a complete standstill; a traffic jam of this kind." The term originates from a situation possible in...
" are fashioned in the style of the couple in the painting. The American Gothic couple have even been reinterpreted as Living Dead Dolls twice, in 2004 and 2009.
The painting is parodied on the cover of American Skathic, a 1995 collection of ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
music from the Midwest
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
with cover art by Evan Dorkin
Evan Dorkin
Evan Dorkin is an American comics artist and writer. His best known works are the comic books Milk and Cheese and Dork...
. In it, the man and woman are shown in mod fashion and the man is holding a trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
.
A parody of American Gothic, in which the head of the farmer is not shown, is seen as one of the pictures Pee-wee Herman
Pee-wee Herman
Pee-wee Herman is a comic fictional character created and portrayed by American comedian Paul Reubens. He is best known for his two television series and film series during the 1980s. The childlike Pee-wee Herman character developed as a stage act that quickly led to an HBO special in 1981...
pulls down in the Picturephone in the Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse is an American children's television program starring Paul Reubens as the child-like Pee-wee Herman. The show was developed from Reubens' popular stage show and the one-off TV special The Pee-wee Herman Show, produced for HBO, which was similar in style but featured much more...
episode "Miss Yvonne's Visit". The woman's eyes are bugged out, as if in a state of shock, and more of the house is shown.
American Gothic is parodied on the cover of POSTAL2: Apocalypse Weekend
Postal 2
Postal 2 is a first-person shooter video game by Running with Scissors, and it is the sequel to the 1997 game Postal. Both are intentionally highly controversial due to high levels of violence and stereotyping. Unlike its predecessor, Postal 2 is played completely in first-person based on the...
in which the farmer is replaced with Postal Dude, the spinster daughter is replaced with one of the Postal Babes, and the sky is replaced with what appears to be a picture of one of the Operation: CASTLE
Operation Castle
Operation Castle was a United States series of high-energy nuclear tests by Joint Task Force SEVEN at Bikini Atoll beginning in March 1954...
tests, possibly Castle ROMEO
Castle Romeo
Castle Romeo was the code name given to one of the tests in the Operation Castle series of American nuclear tests. It was the first test of the TX-17 thermonuclear weapon , the first deployed U.S...
. The painting itself can also be seen in the main menu. The Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...
title sequence also features the American Gothic iconography.
In the opening scene of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...
, Richard O'Brien
Richard O'Brien
Richard Timothy Smith , better known under his stage name Richard O'Brien, is an English writer, actor, television presenter and theatre performer. He is perhaps best known for writing the cult musical The Rocky Horror Show and for his role in presenting the popular TV show The Crystal Maze...
and Patricia Quinn
Patricia Quinn
Patricia Quinn, Lady Stephens is a Northern Irish actress best known for her role as Magenta in the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show . Hers were the red lips that appeared in the film's opening song "Science Fiction/Double Feature"...
appear as a farmer and his wife in parody of American Gothic. They are joined by a daughter dressed in the same fashion. A copy of the painting can be seen at the beginning of the "Time Warp". The painting is referenced once again near the end of the movie when Riff uses a laser/stun gun on Columbia, Frank and Rocky that is patterned on the pitchfork that the farmer holds.
In the Disney version of Mulan
Mulan
Mulan is a 1998 American animated film directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, with story by Robert D. San Souci and screenplay by Rita Hsiao, Philip LaZebnik, Chris Sanders, Eugenia Bostwick-Singer, and Raymond Singer. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney...
, two of Mulan's ancestors are seen posing in the style of the painting.
In the "Human Again" song added on the special edition DVD release of the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...
, the characters of Mrs. Potts and Cogsworth are seen posing in the style of the painting.
The 2011 novel The Butterfly and the Flame by Dana De Young, features the American Gothic. In the novel's setting, which occurs in the year 2404, the painting is owned by the novel's antagonist, David Marsh. It is mentioned that the painting was partially burned at some point in the past.
In "The Simpsons" Season 5 Episode 12, "Bart Gets an Elephant
Bart Gets an Elephant
"Bart Gets an Elephant" is the seventeenth episode of The Simpsons fifth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 31, 1994. In the episode, Bart wins a radio contest and is awarded an elephant named Stampy. After Stampy wrecks the Simpsons' house and eats all the...
", 'American Gothic' is shown hanging in the living room of the Simpson family. While Bart is cleaning, he disfigures the painting, revealing, "If you can read this, you scrubbed too hard. - Grant Wood".
In "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is an animated television series that premiered on October 10, 2010 on the United States cable network The Hub, and is based on Hasbro's My Little Pony line of toys and animated works. The series is produced by Hasbro Studios and DHX Media Vancouver...
" Season 2 Episode 6, "The Cutie Pox", 'American Gothic' in pony version is shown hanging on Apple Bloom's wall.
In the Season 6 Episode 7 of Dexter
Dexter (TV series)
Dexter is an American television drama series, which debuted on Showtime on October 1, 2006. The sixth season premiered on October 2, 2011. The series centers on Dexter Morgan , a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who moonlights as a serial killer...
on Showtime, lead character Dexter and the apparition of his brother, Brian, portray "American Gothic" while standing over the body of the motel manager.
External links
- Grant Wood and Frank Lloyd Wright Compared
- About the painting, on the Art Institute's site
- Slate article about American Gothic
- American Gothic: A Life of America's Most Famous Painting
- November 18, 2002, National Public Radio “Morning Edition” report about “American Gothic” by Melissa Gray that includes an interview with Art Institute of Chicago curator Daniel Schulman.
- June 6, 1991, National Public Radio “Morning Edition” report on Iowa's celebration of the centennial of Grant Wood's birth by Robin Feinsmith. Several portions of the report focus on “American Gothic”.
- February 13, 1976, National Public Radio “All Things Considered” Cary Frumpkin interview with James Dennis, author of Grant Wood: A Study in American Art and Culture. The interview contains a discussion about "American Gothic".
- American Gothic House Center site
- Television Commercials (1950s-1960s) contains General Mills New Country Corn Flakes commercial
- American Gothic sculpture removed from Michigan Avenue
- American Gothic Parodies collection