Current Exhibit

Beyond American Gothic

 

presenting a collection of satirical works

about Grant Wood’s memorable painting “American Gothic”

Nov. 14 through Dec. 9, 2009

 

     Satirical imitations of Grant Wood’s famous oil painting of a long-faced, tight-lipped farmer holding a pitchfork, his spinster daughter standing rigidly beside him, and a white house with a Gothic window in the background have surfaced hundreds of times since “American Gothic” was created in 1930.  

     The images have appeared in television shows, sculpture, comic books, movie posters, animated cartoons, advertisements and billion dollar “currency,” to name a few.  Bill Laursen, a resident of Sandy, has collected about 100 parodies of the artwork over 30 years.  They will be presented in the exhibit “Beyond American Gothic” at the Brigham City Museum-Gallery Nov. 14 through Dec. 9.  Admission is free.

     The story behind Laursen’s collection began in a classroom at Cottonwood High School where he taught art and art history from 1972 through 2005, when he retired.  Laursen wanted his students to discover and appreciate the work of artists throughout history and be able to share that knowledge with others.  He says, “No discussion of American art would be complete without mentioning Grant Wood, who is considered America’s foremost Regionalist - painting the area of the U.S. with which he was familiar.  His most famous painting is ‘American Gothic.’”  

     To make the discussion of Wood more memorable, Laursen included mimicry of  “American Gothic” from an article that appeared in LIFE magazine in the early 1980s.  Some of the subjects were Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson, the Beverly Hillbillies and the Ku Klux Klan.  The magazine was paying tribute to Wood and the small town of Eldon, Iowa, where the artist was enchanted by a house with a gabled window and tracery in the American Gothic style.  Over time, students, family and friends presented Laursen with additional parodies on the painting.

     An anonymous gift was a poster promoting the 1988 movie “American Gothic” starring Rod Steiger and Yvonne DeCarlo.  The actors are holding bloody knives as their children  scream from an upstairs window.  The tag line is, “The family that slays together stays together.”  

     On a school trip in the 1980s, Laursen’s art students found a “billion dollar” bill in a souvenir shop in New York’s Times Square.  An aging farmer and his unmarried daughter are posing in the center of the bill, which is over six feet long.  The students signed the bill, rolled it up and gave it to their teacher before leaving the city.

     A lot of food labels with American Gothic caricatures have emerged through the years, and Laursen has some of the most humorous, specifically an advertisement for Cow Pies with two cows dressed as a puritanical couple holding a shovel.  On the label are the words, “...forget the fork, bring a shovel.”  

     The artist has also made important purchases.  He saw a large poster hanging in a window of a Maytag store and talked the manager into donating it to his collection.  The poster portrays the well-known Gordon Jump, the lonely Maytag repairman, standing in uniform with his assistant, holding repair tools instead of a hay fork in front of a Gothic farmhouse.

     In about 1997 while Laursen was vacationing in San Diego, he looked through a bin of posters at an international import store and found “American Relix” that featured a couple dressed as hippies.   Of course he purchased it.

     Other take-offs accumulated are a Muppets’ coloring book, Fig [Paul] Newman’s cookies, Halloween ghouls, RC Willey billboard, Mom and Popcorn purchased in a deli in New York City, sweatshirts and a 2002 Winter Olympics pin.

     Laursen enhanced his collection in 2005 with a personal rendering in colored pencil over computer images.  The piece features King Tut and Queen Nefertiti (believed to be aunt and nephew) standing at the base of a pyramid holding an ankh, the Egyptian symbol for life.

     One collectible that has eluded Laursen is the magazine cover of Hustler magazine with the American Gothic father and daughter undressed.  This lampoon resulted in a lawsuit by Wood’s sister, Nan Wood Graham.

     Laursen saw the original “American Gothic” at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City during a retrospective of Wood’s art.  Laursen says he experienced a deep sense of respect and a reverence for the work.  It was on loan from The Art Institute of Chicago.

     Wood completed “American Gothic” in two months.  His sister Nan and his dentist Byron McKeeby were the models for the painting.  The rigid arrangement of the subject matter was inspired by Northern Renaissance art which the artist studied during three trips to Europe.   

     The painter submitted the composition to an exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago where it won the grand prize.  The museum purchased it for $300.  It was an overnight success and received nationwide attention.  However, some farmers in Iowa felt Wood was mocking them.  One man reportedly said, “...if farmers really looked like that, they better take to bootlegging.”  Another commented, “That woman’s face...would sour milk.”  Wood countered the criticism by saying the painting epitomizes the Puritan ethic and virtues he believed dignified the Midwestern character. He continued to paint affectionately the people and the landscape of the Midwest until he died of cancer in 1942.  The artist was famous, but not rich.

     Patrons can view “Beyond American Gothic” at the museum Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m.  The facility is located at 24 North 300 West.  For further information, please call (435) 723-6769.

***Article written by Mary Alice Hobbs