Gothic style paintings. Gothic painting

American Gothic- Grant Wood. 1930. Oil on canvas. 74 x 62 cm

The painting was created in 1930 during the Great Depression. In the town of Eldon, Grant Wood noticed a neat house built in the Carpenter Gothic style. The artist wanted to depict the house and its potential inhabitants - father and daughter, old maid(according to other sources, these are wife and husband). The models were the painter's sister and his personal dentist. The unusual exposition of the painting is nothing more than an imitation of photographs of those years.

The characters are depicted very clearly and clearly. The man looks at the viewer, a pitchfork is tightly clenched in his hands. A woman with a strict bun at the back of her head looks to the side, wearing an apron with an old-fashioned pattern. The author allowed only one bun to break out of the girl’s laconic hairstyle. In the stern faces of the heroes and their compressed lips, many art critics find hostility and outright ugliness. Other very authoritative researchers saw in the work a satire on the excessive isolation and limitations of the inhabitants of small towns.

Meanwhile, Wood himself complained that the public misinterpreted his work - he saw rural residents precisely that effective force that can resist economic problems which caused the Great Depression. These town and village dwellers are full of determination and courage to fight the problems. The artist said that the heroes of his work are a collective image that he associates with all of America. However, the residents of the town of Elton did not heed the author's explanations; they were outraged and angry at the way Wood presented them in his work.

Is it a daughter or a wife? The answer to this question is also very interesting. The viewer is inclined to “read” this heroine as a wife, but Wood’s sister, who was a model, insisted that she was a daughter. She just wanted to see herself in famous work younger, because at the time of posing she was only 30 years old.

The pitchforks are the central element of the painting. The strict, straight lines of the teeth of this agricultural tool can be read in other details of the blade. The seams of the man's shirt almost perfectly follow the contours of his pitchfork. The whole work seems to consist of an appeal to straight vertical lines - the exterior of the house, the spire, the elongated windows and the characters' faces themselves. Dentist Byron McKeeby, whom we see in the image of the father-husband, recalled that the artist once noted that he liked his face because it consisted entirely of straight lines.

The public reacted with interest to Grant Wood's work as soon as it appeared at an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. It’s amazing, but not everyone agreed with the author’s interpretation of the work, although they recognized that the painter managed to very accurately “capture” the American national spirit. After the Great Depression gave way to an ordinary stable life, the viewer was finally able to see the picture through the eyes of the creator, to discern not harsh, but unshakable Americans who are ready not to fight, but to resist all troubles.

Gothic painting: stained glass and book miniatures The transition from Romanesque painting to Gothic painting was not at all smooth and imperceptible. The “transparent” structure of the Gothic cathedral, in which the plane of the wall gave way to openwork ornaments and huge windows, excluded the possibility of abundant pictorial decoration. The birth of the Gothic cathedral coincided with the period of the highest flowering of Romanesque painting, especially frescoes. But soon other types began to play a dominant role in the decoration of temple buildings. visual arts, and painting was relegated to secondary roles.

Replacement in Gothic cathedrals blank walls with huge windows led to the almost universal disappearance of monumental paintings, which played such a large role in Romanesque art of the 11th and 12th centuries. The fresco was replaced by stained glass - a unique type of painting in which the image is made up of pieces of colored painted glass, connected to each other by narrow lead strips and covered with iron fittings. Stained glass appeared, apparently, in the Carolingian era, but they received full development and distribution only during the transition from Romanesque to Gothic art

.
The huge surfaces of the windows were filled with stained glass compositions that reproduced traditional religious scenes, historical events, labor scenes, literary subjects. Each window consisted of a series of figurative compositions enclosed in medallions
. The stained glass technique, which makes it possible to combine the color and light principles of painting, imparted a special emotionality to these compositions. Scarlet, yellow, green, blue glass, cut out according to the contour of the design, burned like precious gems, transforming the entire interior of the temple. Gothic colored glass created new aesthetic values ​​- it gave paint the highest sonority of pure color.

Creating an atmosphere of colored air, the stained glass window was perceived as a source of light. Stained glass windows placed in the window openings filled the interior space of the cathedral with light, painted in soft and sonorous colors, which created an extraordinary artistic effect. The late Gothic pictorial compositions made using the tempera technique or colored reliefs decorating the altar and altar surrounds were also distinguished by the brightness of their colors.

In the middle of the 13th century. complex colors are introduced into the colorful range, which are formed by duplicating glass (Sainte Chapelle, 1250). The contours of the drawing on the glass were applied with brown enamel paint, the forms were planar in nature
.

The appearance of the page changed in the Gothic manuscript. The illustrations, resonant with pure colors, include realistic details, along with floral ornaments - religious and everyday scenes.


The use of acute-angled writing, which was fully formed by the end of the 12th century, gave the text the appearance of an openwork pattern, in which initials of various types and sizes were interspersed. A sheet of a Gothic manuscript with scattered plot initials and small capital letters, which had ornamental branches in the form of tendrils, gave the impression of filigree with inserts from precious stones and enamels.

April. Illustration by the Limburg brothers for the Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry. .

In manuscripts of the second half of the 13th century characteristic feature became a border that framed the field of the sheet. On the curls of the ornament placed on the margins, as well as on horizontal lines In the frames, artists placed small figures and scenes of an edifying, comic or genre nature.

They were not always related to the content of the manuscript, they arose as a product of the miniaturist’s imagination and were called “droleri” - fun. Free from the conventions of the iconographic canon, these figures began to move rapidly and gesticulate animatedly. Droleri in manuscripts, designed by the Parisian master Jean Pussel (Tues. Thu. XIV century), are distinguished by their generous imagination. The artist’s works show reasonable clarity and subtle taste of the capital’s school.

In late Gothic book miniatures, realistic tendencies were expressed with particular spontaneity, and the first successes were achieved in depicting landscapes and everyday scenes. In the miniatures of the “Rich Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry” (c. 1411-16), which was designed by the Limburg brothers, scenes are poetically and authentically depicted social life, peasant labor, landscapes that anticipated art Northern Renaissance.

Gothic art is an important link in general process culture; Gothic works, full of spirituality and grandeur, have a unique aesthetic charm. The realistic gains of Gothic style prepared the transition to the art of the Renaissance.

Gothic painting. England. Richard II in front of the Madonna.
English King Edward I Plantagenet.
book miniature. Alchemy.

English book miniature. Singing.
Gothic book miniature. Initial. Daniel in the lions' den.
Gothic book miniature. Limburg brothers. Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry
Gothic book miniature. Brothers of Limburg, Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry. January.

Plot

Somewhere in the vastness of Iowa, a house is lost, the architecture of which is... classic example Carpenter Gothic. At the end of the 19th century, this style formed the “face” of the Midwest. Wanting to somehow decorate their simple houses, provincial craftsmen decorated them with elements in a neo-Gothic Victorian mood.

A man and a woman are depicted in the background of a house. According to one version, this married couple, on the other - a daughter with her father. The artist’s sister Nan especially insisted on the second. She agreed to pose, made an effort to prepare the right suit, and Wood ended up writing her so that she looked much older than her age. To “shave off” a few years, Nan insisted in all interviews that the woman on the canvas was a daughter, not a wife.

Photo source: wikipedia.org

Dentist Byron McKeeby posed for the man. The 62-year-old man's face, according to Wood, seemed to consist of long straight lines. The good-natured McKeeby agreed to become a model, asking only to make sure that his acquaintances did not recognize him. But, alas, everything turned out completely the opposite.

Wood reproduced many of the characters’ appearances from his childhood memories of his parents: his father had round glasses; the patch on the apron was taken from my mother’s old clothes; the brooch was bought by Wood in Europe for his mother; the church spire as a reminder that the parents, exemplary Presbyterians, met in church.

It's interesting that in real life both models were cheerful, active, and younger. But for the sake of history, they remained in the images that Wood invented for them. And yet the artist gave up. In one of his letters, he stated: “I allowed one strand to fall out to show, despite everything, the humanity of the character.”

"Evaluation" (1931). Photo source: wikipedia.org

Wood borrowed composition and technique from the Northern Renaissance masters, whose work he apparently saw during his trip to Europe. At the same time, Puritan restraint corresponds to the “New Materiality” popular in the 1920s.

Context

The painting was first exhibited in the year of its creation—1930. This happened at the Art Institute of Chicago, where the painting remains to this day. In the year of his debut, the artist received a prize of $300 for the painting. News about the exhibition spread American Gothic, making it recognizable in every corner of the country. Almost immediately, the picture became a source for caricatures and parodies.

Some - for example, Gertrude Stein, one of the critics who immediately appreciated Wood's painting - viewed the painting as a satire on the narrow-mindedness of the inhabitants of one-story America. Others saw it as an allegory for the unshakable spirit of Americans whose spirit was not broken by the Great Depression. Wood, when asked about the essence of the painting, answered: “I did not write satire, I tried to portray these people as they were for me in the life that I knew.”

Tourists pose in front of the house depicted in the painting. Photo source: nytimes.com

Iowans didn't like American Gothic. It was advised to hang it in a creamery so that the milk would sour faster with such sour faces. Someone threatened to bite off the artist's ear.

The fate of the artist

Wood himself was one of those Iowa country folk. His father died when Grant was 10 years old, so his mother apprenticed him quite early. Already in childhood, he mastered some of the techniques with which he later earned money: working on wood, metal, glass, etc.

Self-portrait. Photo source: wikipedia.org

Wood admitted that best ideas they came when he was milking the cow. At his core, he was more of a craftsman than an artist. After graduating from the University of Chicago School of Art, Wood made jewelry from silver, and even a long trip to Europe could not radically change him creative path. Yes, he looked at how the masters of the Northern Renaissance worked and adopted a lot from them; yes, he got acquainted with contemporary trends and trends in European art. But still he remained and deliberately strengthened the provincialism and realism of his work. Wood was one of the organizers of the regionalism movement popular in the Midwest. Community representatives chose scenes from the lives of ordinary Americans to create.

Wood began to be parodied and replicated en masse after the gradual recovery from the Great Depression. "American Gothic" with its severity, steadfastness and puritanism began to appear in the theater, cinema and even in pornography.

Sources:
Encyclopedia Britannica
Art Institute Chicago
The New York Times
Steven Biel "American Gothic"

Photo for the announcement on home page and Lida: wikipedia.org

This painting is not known to many people in Russia, but throughout the world it is considered a classic of American art.

The author of the picture is Grant Wood. The artist was born and raised in Iowa, where he later taught painting and drawing. All his work is performed with incredible precision the smallest details. But his most famous painting, American Gothic, has become a truly national landmark.

The story of the painting began in 1930 when the author accidentally saw a house in the neo-Gothic style in a small town in Iowa. Later he depicted a family who, in his opinion, could live in this house. It is noteworthy that the characters depicted have nothing to do with either this house or each other. The woman is the artist's sister. The man is his dentist. Wood painted portraits from them separately.
Why gothic? Pay attention to the attic window. In those days, it was popular among rural carpenters to weave various Gothic motifs into the construction of residential buildings.

Perhaps this is the most replicated image, but the lazy one didn’t come up with a parody of this picture. However, at one time the picture was perceived differently. After the publication of a reproduction of this painting in one of the local newspapers, angry letters rained down on the editor. Residents of Iowa did not like the way the artist depicted them. They accused him of mocking the rural population. Despite all the attacks, the popularity of the film grew rapidly. And during the Great Depression, this picture actually became an expression of the national spirit.

A monument to the painting was erected in Chicago. Enterprising authors of sculptures released heroes in Big city, taking with him a suitcase.

The picture made it popular small town Aldan is in Iowa with a population of almost 1,000 people. The house still stands in the same place, attracting tourists from all over the world.

Parodies of the painting "American Gothic".

"American Gothic"- painting American artist Grant Wood, created in 1930. One of the most recognizable images in American art XX century.

The painting depicts a farmer and his daughter against the backdrop of a house built in the Carpenter Gothic style. IN right hand the farmer has a pitchfork, which he holds tightly clenched fist the way they hold a weapon. Wood managed to convey the unattractiveness of father and daughter - tightly compressed lips and the father’s heavy, defiant gaze, his elbow exposed in front of his daughter, her pulled hair with only one loose curl, her head and eyes slightly turned towards her father, full of resentment or indignation. The daughter is dressed in a typical 19th-century American apron, and the seams on the farmer's clothing resemble a pitchfork in his hand. The outline of a pitchfork can also be seen in the windows of the house in the background. Behind the woman are pots of flowers and a church spire in the distance, and behind the man is a barn. The composition of the painting is reminiscent of American photographs late XIX century.

IN 1 In 930, in the town of Eldon, Iowa, Grant Wood noticed a small white house in the Carpenter Gothic style. He wanted to depict this house and the people who, in his opinion, could live in it. The artist's sister Nan served as the model for the farmer's daughter, and the model for the farmer himself was Byron McKeeby ( Byron McKeeby), artist's dentist from Cedar Rapids ( Cedar Rapids) in Iowa. Wood painted the house and people separately, the scene as we see it in the picture never happened in reality.

Wood presented American Gothic in a competition at the Art Institute of Chicago. The judges praised it as a humorous valentine, but the museum curator convinced them to give the author a prize of $300 and convinced the Art Institute to purchase the painting, where it remains to this day. Soon the picture published in newspapers in Chicago, New York, Boston, Kansas City and Indianapolis. However, after publication in a Cedar Rapids newspaper, negative reaction. Iowans were angry at the way the artist depicted them. One farmer even threatened to bite off Voodoo's ear.)))

Grant Wood justified himself that he did not want to make a caricature of Iowans, but a collective portrait of Americans. Wood's sister was offended because in the painting she could be mistaken for the wife of a man twice her age.

Critics believed that the film was a satire on rural life in small American towns. However, during the Great Depression, attitudes towards the painting changed. It came to be seen as a portrayal of the unwavering spirit of the American pioneers.

According to the number of copies, parodies and allusions in popular culture American Gothic stands alongside such masterpieces as Leonardo's Mona Lisa and Munch's Scream.

The artist's sister and his dentist, from whom the painting was based.

The work of photographer Gordon Parks is considered the first parody.

Countless parodies have been created, here is the smallest part: