Grant Wood and His Revolt Against the City
Grant Wood is an American artist most famous for his painting, American Gothic. His best works emerged during an interesting time for American artists, the period of the 1930s and 1940s. This period, following World War I and the Great Depression, saw American artists working to distance themselves from European influence and create a truly American form of art. Three different American art movements shared this goal, the Regionalists, Social Realists, and Abstract Impressionists.
Grant Wood was a leader of the Regionalist movement, and strongly believed that American artists had a patriotic duty to “secede from Europe” and establish a form of art unique to America. He and other Regionalists ideas of American art were based on shared heritage and childhood memories of rural America, particularly in the Midwest. These artists believed that the American Midwest, with its frontiers and farmers, were truly American. Regionalists were afraid of future Americans losing their identity as they moved into eastern cities like New York.
In his 1935 essay titled “Revolt Against the City,” Wood wrote briefly of Rene d’Harnoncourt, an Austrian artist who after leading a Mexican exhibit through America said he believed that culturally the eastern United States are still colonies of Europe. Wood went on to argue that the United States has no hope of developing a culture of her own until the subserviency to Europe is fixed. He further railed against American cities as “less typically American” and “seats of the colonial spirit.”
“[Urban growth of the 1880s and 1890s] served, so far as art was concerned, to tighten the grip of traditional imitativeness for the cities were far less typically American than the frontier areas whose power they usurped. Not only were they the seats of the colonial spirit, but they were inimical to whatever was new, original, and alive in the truly American spirit.”
It is possible to understand the Regionalists frustrations with the Northeast cities, from 1880 to 1930 the population density in the Northeast increased four times to 800 people per sq. mile, whereas in 1930 the American midwest had only a meager population density of less than 200 people per sq. mile. How could those artists in the Northeast reflect the realities or beauty of frontier life? However, knowingly or not, Wood and the Regionalists were fighting a losing battle. From 1880 to 1930, the percentage of Americans living in cities would double, and from 1940 to 1970 the percentage would increase from 50% to 75%.
Wood wrote that the frontier spirit is the primary driver behind most American artwork, as most urban artists of the time were originally from rural areas and their art was influenced by childhood memories of these areas. However, he failed to realize that because of this flight to the cities, the next generation of artists and the generation after would have fewer and fewer artists born in rural America. Thus, in the future more and more American artists would draw inspiration from their urban environments rather than Midwestern frontiers. In fact, it is highly possible today that most Americans would argue the opposite of Wood’s essay — specifically that American cities are the true reflection of American culture and the rural areas of America reflect more of America’s past.
Moving away from geopolitical ideas, Wood finished his essay with a strategic call for Regionalism. He argued that each section of America has a personality of its own — consisting of its physiography, industry, and psychology. Painters and writers help to reveal these personalities in their work. Once different regions have developed specific characteristics, they will naturally begin to come into conflict with one another, and from this a rich American culture will grow. He credits this idea to the development of Gothic architecture in France, as various towns competed to have the largest and finest cathedrals.
Following the rise of Nazi Germany and other European nationalist movements, many Americans deemed Regionalist work to be too nationalistic. This combined with the collectors’ preference for more modern and European styled Abstract Impressionist work led to an early fall in popularity for Regionalist artists. The continued urbanization of America also probably helped ensure that no similar movement could garner such strong support again.
Grant Wood played a key role in helping to shape the first forms of truly American art. Although his form of art eventually lost out to Abstract Impressionism, his ideas reinforced the need for a unique American art and influenced many other artists living in the same time period, including Abstract Impressionist artists.
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Sources:
http://www.econ.ucla.edu/lboustan/research_pdfs/research21_urban_handbook.pdf
http://www.americangothichouse.net/about/the-artist/
http://www.sullivangoss.com/Grant_Wood/
http://www.internationalarts.org/CW%20Wood%20Essay%20Revolt.pdf
Originally published at firstpieceart.com.
