This, of course is Grant Wood's famous farm couple, in his classic painting "American Gothic." They look Gothic, all right, and because of this, they are joint winners of this week's Raving Queen Bitch Of The Week Award!
I do not know the history of this painting, so I cannot tell you if a real life couple posed for it, or if Wood created them himself. I do know they were impersonated in a famous 1963 for General Mills' cereal "Country Corn Flakes," in which viewers were implored to "Please buy our corn flakes," by this couple.
But I am not fooled. Not one little bit.
They are the faces of evil. American, homegrown, evil.
The man's eyes are soulless. They show no conscience or remorse, and its is obvious he cares only about appearances. Yet he abuses his wife and the farm animals with his pitch fork, which has cut into more flesh than a 1950's suburban American family launching into a steak dinner!!!!!!!!!!!!
He is depraved, probably a sexual predator, into children, when he can find them, and, especially bestiality. He only fears one thing--his wife.
Don't let those eyes revealing a conscience fool you, girls! She may have one, but it is buried beneath repressed lusts that erupt into outbursts of nymphomania, when the sun goes down, and the shades fall on that upstairs window behind them. That is when she physically and psychologically drains her husband, taking sadistic delight in the knowledge their community thinks of them as God fearing Christians, when both know they are not!!
Butter would not melt in these bitches mouths!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe these two are the reason George Orwell wrote "Animal Farm!!!!!!!!!!!"
This painting was in the news again recently, I forget why (perhaps it was in the papers because its visiting NYC).
ReplyDeleteA few morsels for you:
Grant Wood was closeted gay when he painted this, then became less closeted.
The woman is his sister Nan.
The man is Wood's dentist!
Gertrude Stein absolutely loved this painting, and frequently remarked upon it.
ReplyDeleteIf it is on exhibit in NYC, then I want to see it
It has always creeped me out. David and I were
discussing it, and he thought the couple was a
father and a daughter. How creepy is that? But
his sister and a dentist is creepy also. I
always thought--like most people, I am sure,
it was a husband and wife!
Most people take it to be a husband and wife.
ReplyDeleteThis bugged Nan to no end, because she hated the idea of people thinking she married a much older man. All her life, she would tell people it was intended as a father/daughter depiction, and they'd laugh her off (despite Wood himself confirming on multiple occasions that father/daughter was in fact his intention).
Part of the fascination with this painting is the way it has been misinterpreted from the get-go. It is one of those rare instantly-iconic artworks whose impact had nothing remotely to do with the artist's own aims. Wood was perpetually pissed that even the title "American Gothic" was perceived incorrectly as a political statement against capitalism and rural life. The intended point of this painting is so paper-thin superficial that it eludes virtually everyone until they research it. Fact is, Wood was obsessed with the arched windows of a particular old "American Gothic" house, and spent quite some time trying to figure out how to paint it in some way that wasn't a real estate poster. He finally hit on adding the couple, and the rest is history, but it was really simply meant to be a commentary on the architecture.
Funny how many artists are shocked at how differently the public interprets their creations.
ReplyDeletePeople--and I am no exception--project
their own interpretations onto things ike
paintings and films.
That Nan got married surprised me. The
woman looks quintessentially spinster-ish,
and yet... Makes me think of another famous
Nan....Nancy, the comic character by Ernie
Bushmiller. She had her Aunt, Fritzi Ritz,
who had a Gloria Grahame figure, and Maureen O'Hara
hair, but the poor child already looked like a
burgeoning butch lesbian, so what could the future
have held for her?