Why so serious?

"All the good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow." Grant Wood

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Today: "Why so serious?"

How to piss off the locals without saying a word.

Grant Wood, "American Gothic", 1930, oil on beaver board, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago.
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One day in 1930, while strolling through the small town of Eldon, Iowa, Grant Wood spots something beautiful: a charming white house with a front porch and distinctive second-floor window. Though he isn’t in the market for a new home, the painter is looking for a muse. It occurs to him that this house should play a starring role in his next painting.

That painting, American Gothic, made Wood famous around the globe. But at home, it put his life — or at least his extremities — at risk.

Photograph of Grant Wood’s sister, Nan, and his family dentist, Dr. Byron H. McKeeby.
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Locals are none too happy when American Gothic debuts. The painting depicts a farmer and his daughter standing before their family home. Modeled after the artist’s sister (and family dentist!), these characters are rigid and austere, all pitchfork and no smiles.

Clearly, locals think, Wood is mocking our country ways. One Iowan is so insulted by the piece that she even threatens to bite off Wood’s ear.

Grant Wood, "Stone City, Iowa", 1930, oil on wood, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE.
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But American Gothic is not the critique of an outsider looking in. Wood, a native of the Corn State, was a regionalist painter whose art depicted scenes of rural American life. He wanted to celebrate his neighbors’ puritan morals and tireless work ethic. If anything, American Gothic is an homage, not an insult, to the Midwest’s hearty character.

View of Eldon, Iowa’s American Gothic House, the home that inspired Grant Wood.
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Tensions eventually smoothed over. Today, the once-controversial work is considered a masterpiece, one of the most famous paintings in American history. And among the most parodied around the world.

As for the little white house that started it all? It’s now a major tourist attraction. An ironic twist of fate for the inspiration of such a humble scene.