20 American Gothic Parodies

American Gothic (Lithuanian: „amerikietiška gotika“) is one of the best-known paintings in the culture of the United States, painted in 1930 by Grant Wood (1891−1942). It depicts a typical elderly American couple with a pitchfork standing in front of a rural farmhouse.

In 1930, American painter Grant Wood noticed a house (still standing today) in the town of Eldon, in the state of Iowa. He came up with the idea of painting portraits of two people against the backdrop of this house, representing a typical American couple. What the painting actually depicts has never been fully explained, and the artist himself left no specific clues about it. According to the simplest interpretation, it portrays a typical Midwestern American farming family — puritanical and conservative.

Grant Wood presented this painting at an exhibition organized by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1930, where it won a bronze medal and a $300 prize. The painting probably would not have attracted much attention had it not been popularized by newspapers. The pitchfork-wielding couple depicted in the painting was treated as a caricature of the average Midwestern American. The artist received threats from residents of Iowa and defended himself, saying he had not intended to portray anything negative, since he himself was also a resident of the region. According to Wood, the painting depicts a father and daughter, not a husband and wife. Nevertheless, newspapers quickly made the painting famous, and it is now generally known as a parody of the typical withdrawn and provincial American.

The work was acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago. It was modeled by Grant Wood’s sister, Nan, and the local dentist, B. H. McKeeby. Wood painted them separately, and they never posed for the painting together. The artist originally intended to paint a rake, but later changed it to a pitchfork. The woman wears her mother’s locket, and the clothing she wears was already out of fashion at the time. The painting’s title derives from the house depicted in it, which was built in the eclectic style popular for such rural farmhouses at the time, using Gothic forms (for example, the shape of the central upper window). The painting is also executed in a manner characteristic of 15th-century Northern Renaissance art, with very precisely and clearly rendered details and frontal poses of the figures. Its style is classified as belonging to the Realist movement in art.

American Gothic is an extremely frequently parodied painting, so we have selected 20 parodies for you to enjoy!