biographie de Grant WOOD (1892-1942)

Birth place: Anamosa, IA

Death place: Iowa City, IA

Addresses: Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, IA

Profession: Painter, teacher, graphic artist

Studied: Minneapolis School Design, with E. Batchelder, summers 1910-11; Iowa State Univ.; AIC; Académie Julian, Paris, 1923; Univ. Wisconsin, (hon Litt.D., 1935); Lawrence College, (hon Litt.D., 1938).

Exhibited: Galerie Carmine, Paris, 1926 (solo); Iowa Federation Women's Clubs, 1928 (first prize); Iowa Art Salon, 1929 (first prize), 1930 (first prize for portrait and landscape, sweepstakes), 1931 (sweepstakes in oil), 1932 (sweepstakes); Toledo Mus. Ann. Exhibit, 1929; National Acad. Art, Chicago, 1930 (solo); AIC, 1930 (Norman Wait Harris bronze medal), 1942 (retrospective); PAFA Ann., 1931, 1937; Corcoran Gal biennials, 1937, 1957; WMAA.

Member: Mural Painters; Cedar Rapids AA; NAD

Work: Art Inst. Chicago (American Gothic"); Cedar Rapids (Iowa) AA; Cincinnati AM; Amon Carter Mus.; Memorial Hall of Cedar Rapids, Memorial Coliseum; Joslyn Art Mus., Omaha, NE; Nebraska AA, Lincoln; Omaha (NE) AI; Dubuque (IA) AA; WMAA; MMA"

Comments: Important figure in the Regionalist art movement of the 1930s, along with Thomas Hart Benton and John S. Curry. Wood advocated that American artists should turn inward and explore American themes by looking to their own environment for subject matter. Wood's own subject was the rural midwest, particularly Iowa, and in his work he reflected both his respect for rural life and a commentary that at times could be ironic, witty, and critical. His philosophy is exemplied in his most famous work American Gothic," which was meant as a satirical commentary on Puritan repression, and by his own words: "Your true Regionalist is not a mere eulogist; he may even be a severe critic" ("Revolt Against the City," essay, 1935). In stylistic terms his work can be divided into two phases: works prior to 1928, which are rendered in a somewhat impressionistic, picturesque manner; and those after, which were influenced by his interest in 16th-century Northern German and Flemish art (Wood had traveled to Munich with Marvin Cone in 1928). In these works, clarity prevails, as Grant combines precisely contoured, stylized forms and high color in simple, ordered compositions. Wood, together with several other artists, including Adrian Dornbush, founded the Stone City art colony and school in 1932. It was located three miles from Anamosa on the Wapsipinicon River. The colony and school flouished for two years but the expense was too great and it was abandoned in 1934. Illustrator: "Main Street," by Sinclair Lewis. Positions: teacher, Stone City Art School (founder) 1932; Univ. Iowa, from ca. 1933; WPA Dir. for Iowa, 1933-34.

Sources: WW40; Baigell, American Scene Painting; Wanda Corn, Grant Wood, the Regionalist Vision (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1983); Joseph S. Czestochowski, John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood: A Portrait of Rural America (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1981); CÈcile Whiting, "American Heroes and Invading Barbarians: The Regionalist Response to Fascism," Prospects, vol.13, 1988: 295-325; Ness & Orwig, Iowa Artists of the First Hundred Years, 225-26. "

Réserves Légales