‘American Gothic’ (1930): Icon, Iconography and Myth.
‘‘For the myth is the foundation of life; it is the timeless schema, the pious formula into which life flows when it reproduces its traits out of the unconscious.’’
— Thomas Mann
Intense love always leads to mourning.
— Louise Glück
Where to begin with the most famous painting in American art? With the artist? With the content? With the reception? With the interpretations? Or with the meta-narrative of misinterpretations that began once Grant Wood’s painting had achieved the Bronze Award at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1930? Or shall I just mix them all up for fun? That’s pretty much what Grant Wood did with the content and the correspondences within his iconic painting. And furthermore, the comments he made about his painting were deliberately vague. Bordering upon disingenuous.
His masterpiece is assuredly now, iconic. In fact, I would argue, it is beyond iconic. It is the most reproduced and parodied painting in American history. The superlatives have gone beyond even their semiotic containment field. But what is beyond iconic? Well here goes.
Myth is beyond iconic. And that is exactly where we now find ourselves in the history of the interpretative attempts to decipher the painting. In 2019 Kelly Grovier…
