Artist

Grant Wood

born Anamosa, IA 1891-died Iowa City, IA 1942
Media - J0002305_1b.jpg - 89391
Grant Wood, © Peter A. Juley & Son Collection, Smithsonian American Art Museum J0002305
Also known as
  • Grant DeVolson Wood
Born
Anamosa, Iowa, United States
Died
Iowa City, Iowa, United States
Active in
  • Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States
Nationalities
  • American
Biography

Painter. A practitioner of American scene painting, Wood painted views of the Midwest in a realistic style mixed with satire. His most famous work, American Gothic, is an American icon.

Joan Stahl American Artists in Photographic Portraits from the Peter A. Juley & Son Collection (Washington, D.C. and Mineola, New York: National Museum of American Art and Dover Publications, Inc., 1995)

Artist Biography

Grant Wood studied art sporadically at the Minneapolis Handicraft Guild, Iowa State University, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Académie Julian in Paris. Numerous exhibitions in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, helped Wood establish himself as an important regional artist; by 1935 he was teaching and lecturing across the United States. Wood was a leading exponent of American Scene painting, depicting views of the Midwest, particularly his native Iowa, that conveyed a reverence for the rural community and praise for the hard-working farmer. His most famous work, American Gothic (1930), is an American icon.

National Museum of American Art (CD-ROM) (New York and Washington D.C.: MacMillan Digital in cooperation with the National Museum of American Art, 1996)

Exhibitions

Media - 1995.27 - SAAM-1995.27_1 - 52089
Graphic Masters II: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
June 18, 2009January 10, 2010
Graphic Masters II: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the second in a series of special installations, celebrates the extraordinary variety and accomplishment of American artists' works on paper.