American Gothic by Steven Biel

American Gothic: A Life of America's Most Famous Painting

AUTHOR: Steven Biel

The origins and multiple meanings of Grant Wood's indelible portrait.

Is there anyone who has not seen the sturdy Iowa farmer with his pitchfork and his thin-lipped wife or daughter? Ever since it met the public eye in 1930, the work titled American Gothic has elicited admiration, disgust, reverence, and ridicule—and has been reproduced hundreds of thousands of times, in every medium. Painted by a self-proclaimed "bohemian" who studied in Paris, the image was first seen as a critique of Midwestern Puritanism and what H. L. Mencken called "the booboisie." During the Depression, it came to represent endurance in hard times through the quintessential American values of thrift, work, and faith. Later, in television, advertising, politics, and popular culture, American Gothic evolved into parody—all the while remaining a lodestar by which one might measure closeness to or distance from the American heartland.

With broad perspective, acute insight, and humor, Steven Biel explores the strangely enduring life of America's most popular painting. 30 illustrations and 8 pages of color.

Book Size: 6" x 8 1/2"
hardcover, 215 pages

W. W. Norton & Company
New York - London
Copyright 2005 by Steven Biel
ISBN 0-393-05912-X

PRICE: $22.00