Grant Wood

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Grant Wood

• Iowa's Most Beloved Artist

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Early Years 1891-1919

• Grant Wood, born Grant DeVolson Wood (February
  13, 1891)
• born in Anamosa, Iowa.
• His family moved to Cedar Rapids after his father
  died in 1901. Soon thereafter he began as an
  apprentice in a local metal shop. After
  graduating from Washington High School (Cedar
  Rapids, Iowa) , Wood enrolled in art school in
  Minneapolis in 1910, and returned a year later to
  teach in a one-room schoolhouse.

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1920-1935

• From 1920 to 1928 he made four trips to Europe,
  where he studied many styles of painting,
  especially impressionism. But it was the work of
  Jan Van Eyck that influenced him to take on the
  clarity of this new technique and to incorporate
  it in his new works. From 1924 to 1935 Wood lived
  in the loft of a carriage house that he turned
  into his personal studio at "5 Turner Alley" (the
  studio had no address until Wood made one up
  himself).

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1920-1929
Woman with Plants1929
The Spotted Man1924
The Little Chapel Chancelade1926
John B. Turner, Pioneer1929
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1932 Stone City

• In 1932, Wood helped found the Stone City Art
  Colony near his hometown to help artists get
  through the Great Depression. He became a great
  proponent of regionalism in the arts, lecturing
  throughout the country on the topic.

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1930
Stone City, Iowa1930
Arnold Comes of Age1930
American Gothic1930
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1931
Appraisal1931
Victorian Survival1931
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere1931
Fall Plowing1931
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1931-1932
The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover1931
Self-Portrait1932
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1933
Near Sundown1933
Portrait of Nan1933
Adolescence1933
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1934
Dinner for Threshers1934
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1934 -1942

• Wood taught painting at the University of Iowa's
  School of Art beginning in 1934, prompting his
  move to Iowa City. During that time, he
  supervised mural painting projects, mentored
  students, produced a variety of his own works,
  and became a key part of the University's
  cultural community. On February 12, 1942, one day
  before his 51st birthday, Wood passed away at the
  university hospital.

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1936-1939
Spring Turning1936
Haying1939
Parson Weems' Fable1939
New Road1939
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1940-1941
January1940
Iowa Cornfield1941
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His work

• Wood was an active painter from an extremely
  young age until his death, and although he is
  best known for his paintings, he worked in a
  large number of media, including ink, charcoal,
  ceramics, metal, wood and found objects.
• Throughout his life he hired out his talents to
  many Iowa-based businesses as a steady source of
  income. This included painting advertisements,
  sketching rooms of a mortuary house for
  promotional flyers and, in one case, designing
  the corn-themed decor (including chandelier) for
  the dining room of a hotel. In addition, his 1928
  trip to Munich was to oversee the making of the
  stained-glass windows he had designed for a
  Veterans Memorial Building in Cedar Rapids.
• Woods' best known work is his 1930 painting
  American Gothic, one of the most familiar images
  in 20th century American Art. The painting was
  first exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago
  where it can still be found today. Today, the
  painting is often satirized in pop culture,
  though it remains one of the top examples of
  Regionalism and American art. Wood is considered
  the patron artist of Cedar Rapids, and one of his
  designs is depicted on the 2004 Iowa State
  Quarter.