Metal Nº 37

The Great Depression of the ‘30s led many painters towards a new approach of representation, whether it was cities or countryside, nature or industrial landscapes; realism was what should drive the brush. One day, artist Grant Wood noticed a Victorian farm and he was stroke by the allure of the construction. Those windows, with their ogive shapes, reminded him so much of the Middle Age that he actually found there an intense inspiration. The mentality of his native Iowa was materialised in that house! Few months later, his sister – dressed up with severity – and the local dentist of Cedar Rapids (Iowa) were finally ready to get sketched. By portraying those laborious and abstemious countryside workers, Wood actually merged American art with a meaningful content, making his American Gothic one of the most iconic art of all time.