American Gothic

For other uses, see American Gothic (disambiguation).

Painting information
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American Gothic (1942) by Gordon Parks was the first prominent parody of the painting.

American Gothic is a painting by Grant Wood, from 1930. Portraying a pitchfork-holding farmer and his daughter in front of a house of Carpenter Gothic style, it is one of the most familiar images in 20th century American art. The models, who sat for the painting separately, were the artist's sister, Nan, and his dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby. The house is located in Eldon, Iowa. The painting is currently located at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Wood wanted to depict the traditional roles of men and women as the man is holding a pitchfork symbolizing hand labor. Wood referenced late 19th century photography and posed his sitters in a manner reminiscent of early American portraiture. Wood also commissioned the sitters' clothing to mimic 19th century Americana.

Parodies

American Gothic is 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 postcards, magazines, animated cartoons, advertisements, comic books, and television shows.

• The first prominent parody, in 1943, was a photo by Gordon Parks of cleaning woman Ella Watson, shot in Washington, D.C. The photo trades on the the post-Great Depression interpretation of Wood's painting as a "celebratory expression of populist nationalism".
• Postcards replacing the couple with sitting US Presidents and Presidential nominees (and their spouses) are often popular products. Some examples being Ronald and Nancy Reagan or Bill and Hillary Clinton.
• Paul Newman posed in the same way as the man on the labels of Newman's Own, his food product line.
• The movie Good Fences starring Whoopie Goldberg also has a parody of the painting on its cover.
• In The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 'Riff-Raff' (Richard O'Brien) and 'Magenta' (Patricia Quinn) pose as the couple in front of the arched church doors during the song "Dammit Janet", after the wedding of Brad and Janet's friends Betty Monroe and Ralph Hapschatt. At the end, when they reveal their alien identities, the pitchfork has turned into a trident-shaped raygun.
• The cover of the book The Art of the Laugh.
• In the satirical on-line game Kingdom of Loathing, one monster in the Haunted Gallery is "a guy with a pitchfork, and his wife."
• As part of the long running "If Norman Rockwell depicted the 20th century" series, MAD printed a parody of the picture titled "American Gaythic", featuring two men.
• The picture is also parodied in the 1988 slasher film American Gothic (film) film poster starring Yvonne DeCarlo and Rod Steiger.
• A very Rare limited edition print of American Gothic has surfaced in Scottsboro, Alabama. This print with the Stone City Seal was originally given to the mayor of Huntsville, Al. by Miss Iowa World 1978.
• In The Music Man, a musical by Meredith Willson, a brief visual reference is made during the "Iowa Stubborn" number as two men moving a very large picture frame stop in front of a man and woman, the man holding a pitchfork.
• In the town of Bulls, New Zealand, a mural featuring the couple with the head of a cow and a bull covers a garage door facing a main street. The town's mushroom-shaped water tank is in the background, transplanting the scene to Bulls.

Television

File:Conan O'Brien does American Gothic.jpg

An example of the hundreds of references to Grant Wood's work commonly seen in popular culture: March 17, 2006 show of the Late Night with Conan O'Brien Conan O'Brien and Finland's President Tarja Halonen parodying American Gothic

• After a resemblance was noted between Late Night with Conan O'Brien's host Conan O'Brien and Finland's President Tarja Halonen, occasional gags would pop-up comparing the two — one recurring one would be the two replacing the couple in American Gothic occasionally aired before cutting to a commercial, or as they return.
• Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie pose as the couple during the title and opening credits of their TV series The Simple Life.
• The painting in its original form is featured in the opening credits of Desperate Housewives. Posing the same style for a moment, the man then smiles to run off with some show girls, as the daughter scowls in disgust.
• The 1960s sitcom Green Acres also had the lead couple pose as the couple in the painting during their opening credits.
• Rocky & Bullwinkle also pose as the couple during certain skits in their TV show, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
• Australian talk show Rove Live replaces the couple with Melissa Doyle and David Koch of Sunrise.
• On Courage the Cowardly Dog, Courage and his owners Muriel and Eustace visit The Louvre at night and all the works of art come to life. At the end of the show, Muriel sees the American Gothic painting and says, "That one reminds me of home." Then they all jump into the painting and end up back at their farm in Kansas.
• The Simpsons used the painting for a joke for the fifth season episode "Bart Gets an Elephant," in which, apparently, the family owns the original painting itself. While cleaning the living room, Bart absentmindedly begins to wipe the painting until he has rendered the entire canvas blank, revealing a message underneath that says, "If you can read this, you scrubbed too hard.–Grant Wood."
• A question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? read "Who did artist Grant Wood use as the model for the farmer in his classic painting American Gothic?" Nancy Christy knew it was his dentist, and it earned her $1,000,000.
• An episode of Doctor Who in the 2007 series, Gridlock, features minor characters in the pre-credits sequence with identical clothing and appearance to the people in American Gothic.
• In a game of "Props" on the improvisational comedy show, Whose Line is it Anyway?, two of the performers - Drew Carey and Ryan Stiles - stand silently side by side, Ryan holding an orange, foam rubber object resembling a pitchfork. There is silence for a brief moment before the audience recognizes it as being reminiscent of American Gothic and promptly burst into laughter.
• The collectible miniatures game Dreamblade has the "infernal Gothic" figure, which resembles the farmer from American Gothic, only as a devil.
• In the classic Looney Tunes short "Louvre Come Back To Me!", Pepe LePew and Penelope Pussycat hide in the Louvre's air conditioning, his scent pervades into a gallery above, reaching American Gothic, and the figures' heads disappear into their costumes.

Movies

During the first Men_In_Black_film a spoof version of the painting can be glimpsed as a cover image on one of the supermarket tabloids K buys whilst investigating the disappearance of Edgar. The man's head is a skull with eyes.

References

• Steven Biel (2005). American Gothic: A Life of America's Most Famous Painting. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-05912-X.

External links

• About the painting, on the Art Institute's site
• The story of American Gothic
• 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".