American Gothic

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For other uses, see American Gothic (disambiguation).

American Gothic

Grant Wood, 1930

oil on beaverboard

74.3 × 62.4 cm, 29¼ × 24½ inches

Art Institute of Chicago

American Gothic is a painting by Grant Wood, from 1930. Portraying a pitchfork-holding farmer and his daughter in front of a house of Carpenter Gothic style, it is one of the most familiar images in 20th century American art. The models, who sat for the painting separately, were the artist's sister, Nan, and his dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby. The house is located in Eldon, Iowa. The painting resides at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Wood wanted to depict the traditional roles of men and women as the man is holding a pitchfork symbolizing hand labor. Wood placed plants behind the woman to convey the image of a domestic housewife, though the artist had intended her to represent the farmer's unmarried daughter.

1 Parodies
- 1.1 Television
2 References
3 External links

[edit] Parodies

American Gothic is one of the most reproduced—and parodied—images ever. Many artists have replaced the two people with other known couples and replaced the house with well known houses. References and parodies of the image have been numerous for generations, appearing regularly in such media as postcards, magazines, animated cartoons, advertisements, comic books, and television shows.

Postcards replacing the couple with sitting US Presidents and Presidential nominees (and their spouses) are often popular products. Some examples being Ronald and Nancy Reagan or Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Paul Newman posed in the same way as the man on the labels of his food product line.

The movie "Good Fences" starring Whoopie Goldberg also has a parody of the painting on its cover.

In The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a parody of the painting appears during Brad and Janet's wedding scene, with Richard O'Brien, who plays 'Riff-Raff', as the man in the painting, and Patricia Quinn, who plays 'Magenta', as the woman.

The cover of the book "The Art of the Laugh."

In the satirical on-line game Kingdom of Loathing, one monster in the Haunted Gallery is "a guy with a pitchfork, and his wife."

[edit] Television

An example of the hundreds of references to Grant Wood's work commonly seen in popular culture: March 17, 2006 show of the Late Night with Conan O'Brien Conan O'Brien and Finland's President Tarja Halonen parodying American Gothic

After a resemblance was noted between Late Night with Conan O'Brien's host Conan O'Brien and Finland's President Tarja Halonen, occasional gags would pop-up comparing the two - one recurring one would be the two replacing the couple in American Gothic occasionally aired before cutting to a commercial, or as they return.

Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie pose as the couple during the title and opening credits of their TV series The Simple Life.

The painting in its original form is featured in the opening credits of Desperate Housewives. Posing the same style for a moment, the man then smiles to run off with some show girls, as the daughter scowls in disgust.

The 1960s sitcom Green Acres also had the lead couple pose as the couple in the painting during their opening credits.

Rocky & Bullwinkle also pose as the couple during certain skits in their TV show, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

Australian talk show Rove Live has the couple being Melissa Doyle and David Koch of Sunrise, showing the supposed nature of the program.

On Courage the Cowardly Dog, Courage and his owners Muriel and Eustace visit The Louvre at night and all the works of art come to life, at the end, Muriel sees the painting and says "That one reminds me of home", they jump into the painting and end up back at their home, a farm in Kansas.

The Simpsons used the painting for a joke for the fifth season episode "Bart Gets an Elephant", in which, apparently, the family owns the original painting itself. While cleaning the living room, Bart absentmindedly begins to wipe away the painting until he has wiped the entire thing clean, revealing a message underneath that says "If you can read this, you scrubbed too hard. -G. Wood."

A question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? read "Who did artist Grant Wood use as the model for the farmer in his classic painting American Gothic?" Nancy Christy knew it was his dentist, and it earned her $1,000,000.