American Gothic Controversial Essay

If you choose, you can compare or contrast the U.S. Constitution with the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace (the Iroquois Constitution).

It is almost a reflection of the man’s trident. That same pitchfork shape also appears in the window of the house that sits in between both figure’s heads. Repetition can also be seen in the dotted pattern of the woman’s outfit, which also appears in the material of the curtain that hangs in the house’s window. The echo of verticals in this painting is also strong. The faces and bodies of the figures seem to be stretched, and narrowed. The pitchfork’s slender prongs and the green stripes on the man’s shirt also add to the elongation of their frame. The copious amounts of vertical wood boards that make up the house and the barn, keep the viewer’s eye moving up and down the picture plane. Wood’s use of verticality in this painting is overwhelming.

What is gothic. Gothic to me stands for the scary, spooky, and ominous things. Gothic architecture for example has the large cathedrals and the gargoyles on the sides of the buildings that are very spooky and ominous looking. In gothic literature they use the dark things that we as humans fear but also are fascinated by it, that’s why gothic literature is so popular. In the writing authors will talk about death, the Devil, monsters like the famous Frankenstein or Count Dracula. Gothic literature is usually melodramatic and have a sense of dread or mystery around the story, that will usually take place around a dark, scary house

As the new world struggled to gain impendence from its mother country, Britain, native authors also try to develop their own style of writings. It quickly became evident that the search for a native literature became a national obsession. Then with the triumph of American independence, many at the time saw this as a divine sign that America and her people were destined for greatness. Greatness came with a strong nation and thousands of poems and stories that still shape our nation. The recent revolution greatly expressed the heart of the American people. However, it would take another fifty years of development throughout American before it produced the first great generation of American writers such as, Washington Irving, Ralph

(2005). In D. Bjelajac, American Art: A Cultural History (pp. 37-129). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, Inc.

When people look at the “American Gothic” photo painted by Grant Wood they may see a resemblance to the “American Gothic” photograph captured by Gordon Parks. Both images have someone holding something in their hand. In the painting a man is holding a pitchfork, and in the photograph Ella Watson is holding a broom and a

The First painting that I was drawn to in the special exhibit “America after the fall: Painting in the 1930s”, was American Gothic by Grant Wood. This was a work that I had seen all through out my life because it was the staple image to represent the steadfast American pioneer spirit. Seeing it in person, rather than reproductions or prints let me realize why it was such an iconic American painting. It was a twentieth century painting with nineteenth century characteristics. The work is in the style of a typical portrait painting in the nineteenth century.

After analyzing both pieces of art, I see that both pieces of art very similar. To begin with, regarding the colour contrast between both paintings, there are a lot more similarities between both artists. Both paintings were made in the 1800s. After both pieces of art were finished, the artists declared them both failures. Both paintings are also very famous, they're both actually in the top 50 most famous works of art, along with the “Mona Lisa” and “Scream”. Both works of art also include the story of how the artist sees the world, also showing it in

Art by its nature is a subject of the philosophical, social, economic, political or religious context surrounding its creator. More often than not, a work of art addresses a specific topic or somewhat revolves around a particular person. Therefore, it is impossible to separate the context of a piece of painting, either historical or cultural, to its intrinsic value or the artwork's meaning. On the other hand, different cultures and time utilized specific conventions that govern the representation of objects of creativity. This essay highlights various pieces of art and their relationship to particular cultural, political, economic, or social settings. Moreover, it pinpoints how different times influence art presentation.

In this essay The Geography of the Imagination the author Guy Davenport touches a lot of subjects that are somewhat united with Grant Wood’s artwork American Gothic. Davenport takes a closer look at the painting and analysing it from the top to the bottom by drawing interesting comparisons related to ancient history art, events and recent events that were happening at the time. While comparing every small detail he makes a main comparison by comparing Grant Woods to Hans Memling but from Iowa. The author compares both of these artists because Grant Woods like Hans Memling’s style is picking up the same late gothic feel with finely designed interior and landscape backgrounds. However, Memling was the first North European artist that began to

In the first example, a painting done by Norman Rockwell, a girl is portrayed as “more kittenish than hoydenish” the girl and her appearance are described as “soft and tentative”. She is with a boy who is awkward, she touches just his hand and that is only to tell his fortune. The girl “looks into his eyes with confidence and no assumption of consequences to her boldness”. The girl described, was the first step away from “Mary Pickford” yet is still far away from “Flapper”. In the cover the next year, the boy and girl are shown again, this time already contrasting from the Mary Pickford type; the boy and girl share a closeness - “he is standing close in an attitude of embrace” where last time there seemed to be a line drawn in-between them. The girl’s appearance is beginning to change as well, “her dress is beginning to be tomboyish” she wears a sweater and a skirt opposed to a one piece dress and it is no longer soft and delicate. The girl has a “glance backward at the young man- awkward boy no longer- is more conscious of possible consequences of this exciting intimacy”. The stark differences in the looks that each girl is giving is enough to show the changing behavior of this new generation

The first photos of the gothic transition come from the “Prairie Images of Ground and Sky” collection. The collection shows untouched nature that gives a feeling of the sublime. It shows wide green expanses, bathed in warm light, that shows a raw beauty and goodness created by nature. This feeling of the sublime is a major aspect of the gothic due to its ability to provide

Watson, D. (2011). American Gothic/Republicanism and the american gothic.Literature & History, 20(1), 114-116. Retrieved from

When I first saw Grant Wood’s painting of the American Gothic, I was very young, somewhere in the age range of 9 years old. The elderly couple whom both had emotional faces and the elderly gentleman had a pitchfork in his hand. At the time this scared me as I often felt that this piece was awful displaying nothing more than two people on a farm Now that I am older I enjoy this art piece immensely.

In this piece, John Berger discusses the implications of reproducing images and the changes this brings to the meaning and value of the work. As art became readily reproduced, people began to alter paintings, photographs, and other medium's into new pieces with new meanings. These altered forms of art, often provide insight or commentary into context and meaning of the original pieces. One alteration that Berger mentions, is the addition of text to an image, for example Wheatfield with Crows by Van Gogh. Looking at the painting alone, it appears to be a serene landscape with birds soaring across the skies. Alone, nothing would cause you to question the face value of this piece, however when the words “This is the last picture that Van Gogh painted before he killed himself.” are printed beneath it, it changes the whole experience of viewing the image. Suddenly you notice that Van Gogh's short, aggressive brushstrokes give this painting a tumultuous almost violent feeling. The pathway that leads through the wheat field has no destination, it goes nowhere. We see that the crows roam the skies in a disorganized fashion, it is as if nothing in this painting has a purpose or a plan, everything simply is in chaos. We might ask why crows? Could those birds (so often associated with death and mortality) flying towards us in the painting, signify Van Gogh's feeling that the crows, and what they represent, were coming for him?