Graydon Wood

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)

Text © Smithsonian American Art Museum