The Couple with the Pitchfork
American Gothic from Easel to Icon
Seiten
2026
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-28634-1 (ISBN)
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-28634-1 (ISBN)
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A rich, unfolding history of one of the most recognized couples in the world
In this abundantly illustrated book, award-winning art historian Wanda Corn tracks the fortunes and vicissitudes of Grant Wood’s American Gothic, his 1930 realist painting of a rural man and woman posed stiffly before a modest white house with a gothic-styled window. She explores Wood’s scrappy formation as a disadvantaged midwestern artist and his unexpected, overnight fame when American Gothic premiered at the Art Institute of Chicago and was purchased for the museum’s collection. After a close look at the painting’s volatile reputation for its first thirty years, Corn turns to that historic moment in the 1960s when the couple with their pitchfork left the museum and journeyed into the streets. Shedding their preciousness as art, they became a versatile, free-floating image open to anyone’s miming or reuse. That moment also found Corn beginning her long career in art history, and she interweaves her story with that of the couple’s evolving appearances in pop art, cartoons, advertisements, and grassroots reenactments. She offers compelling explanations for the painting’s entry into the pantheon of cult visual images. Today, Wood’s couple stands alongside other art icons: Whistler’s mother, Rodin’s thinker, Hokusai’s wave, Munch’s screamer, and the enigmatic beauty in Leonardo’s Mona Lisa.
A highly readable and personalized study of a painter and the work he would forever be tied to, The Couple with the Pitchfork sheds critical light on the cultural forces that transformed an image with humble roots into a global icon whose reach and charisma extends far beyond the world of art.
In this abundantly illustrated book, award-winning art historian Wanda Corn tracks the fortunes and vicissitudes of Grant Wood’s American Gothic, his 1930 realist painting of a rural man and woman posed stiffly before a modest white house with a gothic-styled window. She explores Wood’s scrappy formation as a disadvantaged midwestern artist and his unexpected, overnight fame when American Gothic premiered at the Art Institute of Chicago and was purchased for the museum’s collection. After a close look at the painting’s volatile reputation for its first thirty years, Corn turns to that historic moment in the 1960s when the couple with their pitchfork left the museum and journeyed into the streets. Shedding their preciousness as art, they became a versatile, free-floating image open to anyone’s miming or reuse. That moment also found Corn beginning her long career in art history, and she interweaves her story with that of the couple’s evolving appearances in pop art, cartoons, advertisements, and grassroots reenactments. She offers compelling explanations for the painting’s entry into the pantheon of cult visual images. Today, Wood’s couple stands alongside other art icons: Whistler’s mother, Rodin’s thinker, Hokusai’s wave, Munch’s screamer, and the enigmatic beauty in Leonardo’s Mona Lisa.
A highly readable and personalized study of a painter and the work he would forever be tied to, The Couple with the Pitchfork sheds critical light on the cultural forces that transformed an image with humble roots into a global icon whose reach and charisma extends far beyond the world of art.
Wanda M. Corn is the Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor Emerita in Art History at Stanford University. She is the author of The Great American Thing: Modern Art and National Identity, 1915–1935, Women Building History: Public Art at the 1893 Columbian Exposition, and Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern.
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 27.10.2026 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 240 color illus. |
| Verlagsort | New Jersey |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 203 x 267 mm |
| Themenwelt | Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Kunstgeschichte / Kunststile |
| ISBN-10 | 0-691-28634-5 / 0691286345 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-691-28634-1 / 9780691286341 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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CHF 33,90
