"It sees something in America that isn’t immediately obvious" Yes. Americans have trust issues and often behave more like dragons perched atop hoards than like members of our own kind. The issue isn't limited to America, but America's history has performed a sort of distillation on issues like these. I often see my fellow Americans choose to assume that the world is entirely full of monsters and thieves. Fearmongering, paranoia, and fragmentation of culture and intellect all play critical roles in this. The only bright side seems to be that once you know about it, you're mostly immune to it.

It has always looked to me like a MAD magazine caricature of ignorant separatist nationalism. It seems dark and difficult to describe because we see the eyes and they do show shame on the girl’s part and antagonism on his. He seems to want to keep whatever is happening in that household, secret. To everyone. The blacked out windows of the house are very telling and it’s, for a lack of a better word, creepy. They purposely cut themselves off from society. To a “cosmopolitan New Yorker” such as myself, America is more Edward Hopper than Grant Wood. We see things depending on where we come from. That is the United States in a nutshell. American Gothic instills a projection of two fervent followers of under circus top, cornfield snake preachers who behind closed doors engage in incest. To me it represents an America I don’t care to understand and don’t wish to know. That in itself is ignorant and elitist. The divide of the country in our projections.

Wonderful explanation, ty.

As someone who sees another country from afar it is like a fantasy from which I see its people draw their conclusions, it is interesting to see the strangeness and familiarity of its idea, it is one of the paintings that defines North America.

I'm with you.

That and the idea that he is protecting his home and family, that his house and his farm are his and he has a God given right to defend it, is a quintessential American ideal.

Thank you. These are the first and only "positive" comments about this image I've read here. Our society seems to see or assume "evil" everywhere. How about two people who have lived hard lives but are still standing?

I agree with all of that

His coming was foretold...

That was just a happy little accident...

And why does everyone assume the old man is "creepy" or evil, or hiding something "dark". People are projecting their own messed up psychological baggage.

​​@@juniorjames7076i can definitely see where people are coming from with this. The daughter just looks straight up worried and the man, if you look closely at his eyes, could be interpreted as distrustful of the viewer. Add to it how everything just looks way too perfect and normal and you got yourself a creepy painting or at least uncomfortable.

@@juniorjames7076 Maybe they are, maybe they are not. Art is subjective after all and interpreting it is an activity in itself. Pondering, churning ideas and debating is part of art, which means different takes are welcome and can introduce you to foreign concepts. Mind you, author's goal can be different from future interpretations - and such is nature of art that lives past its inception. To me (as a foreigner) this painting has always felt... empty. Like an echoing scream but silence at the same time. Hard to describe, really. Don't get me wrong, it's full of expression. Nowadays it makes me think of cults and communes. It's very interesting to find that it has completely different effect on other people. Puts a smile on my face - just because. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

​@juniorjames7076 Thanks for "their own messed up psychological baggage," really. This painting also has an ominous, dark message to me, as well. Same with many other commentators. I think you should not pass judgment on viewers’ subjectivity, even if they differ from yours.

@@juniorjames7076he is both ugly and stern. People don’t like ugly people and the lack of expression makes one wonder the intentions

There's not really odd about the window at all. "Gothic Revival" was a popular architectural style in the US during the 1850's -1860s among the wealthy. Easily reproduced elements filtered down to "vernacular" houses in the 1870s-80s. This seems to be an ordinary 1870s farmhouse. Buildings like it were still common in the 1920s and 30s.

This is my thoughts precisely. So glad to read the words of a kindred spirit.

I have a similar take, I’m in my 30s, but similarly, these are people that I recognize in old family photographs and stories of my grandmother surviving the depression. A fancy window in an otherwise plain house - small luxuries incorporated into a harsh reality. It’s all very recognizable - literally familiar - but also mythological - the stories that they told themselves to make it through harsh laborious jobs in lean times, and stories that are passed down. And each of us recognizes a different aspect or is reminded of a different specific person or house so it manages to bridge the personal and universal. It documents a familiar reality and despite the starkness of the painting kind of romanticizes the idea of hard times building character and how that strength and persistence and character has been passed down through the generations - we could still do it if we had to, (right? I mean I probably couldn’t but the dream is there) but we are lucky that we don’t because they survived so we can thrive and enjoy more small luxuries, have more time for frivolity, than just the beauty of a fancy window and a quick break to pose for a picture - although many of us will never have the satisfaction of being able to construct such a window or be as self-sufficient ourselves. So I guess reality, self-mythologizing, and nostalgia. But also being able to take one’s self seriously and have pride in work or heritage that is not elite but demonstrates a certain persistence and being able to make enough with what’s available. And I do agree with the video that it is very American in its identity These are my American forefathers - the ones I’ve heard stories of my whole life, my great (or is it great-great?) grandparents whose self-reliance, and pride and belief in themselves and their hard work and making sure their nicest clothes are clean even if they are work clothes and standing up straight if someone is coming to take their picture because even if they are poor and tired, it’s important to show the world your best face and be taken seriously. The people who toiled and aged before their years documented and instantly recognizable yet universal. It’s a reminder that they survived as immigrants in an economic depression doing backbreaking work and I can survive too. Just stand up straight and take pride in myself and work hard.

@@MeatyPeachThis response was so beautifully expressed… I just wanted you to know that it was read and immensely appreciated. 🕊️&🤍

I have the exact same experience when I saw that painting, working construction and picking vegetables in the south of the USA under a visa, the look I got from the gringo ranchers reminded of the one in the painting just staring not really saying anything but making you aware they are supervising your movements

Same. Always struck me as a very ‘good ole days’ type of painting.

​@@ericktellez7632 I'm sure the native plains Indians looked at the " gringos" in exactly the same way.

He lived on a farm in Animosa until he was 10 in 1901. The population of Cedar Rapids when he moved there was 25,000- not a city, but definitely a town. I think you’ve gone too far in you characterization as well. Very few artists are truly “bumpkins” but I’d say he had some country in him.

@@gxtmfa I think that’s a very fair comment-maybe my comment was unduly provocative. Perhaps it would have been better to say that Wood was no farmer himself-and, as you might say, very few artists truly are-and I guess people (or at least you and I) can differ on just how much of that “country” in him is reflected in _American Gothic_ and in what ways. (People have disagreed on whether and to what extent _American Gothic_ is an homage to or satire of midwestern American values since it first was publicly exhibited, an ambiguity that I think is key to its enduring appeal.)

The irony is that your own guardedness about middle American culture is reflected in the pitchfork and the painting, despite your claims that it's a myth. Speaking as someone born in the PNW, grew up in the mountain towns of colorado, and moved to the Midwest in my late teens/early twenties, I can say for sure that the myths about middle american farmers are all correct. Both the good ones and the bad ones. And that's the thing about myth. They come in all flavors. The same people who talk about the family values of the working class country small town family are the same people that send their gay son to California on a bus and call the pedophile in their midst the "funny uncle" you don't leave your kids with.

@@Lunch_Meat I’m surprised people look at it so differently. I’ve met loads of people who seem to look like them and act really sweet so I’ve never been creeped out by them. They just remind me of the old folk I know, stern looking but not mean or creepy. As for the “creepy uncle” that’s surprisingly true. What do you even do with them anyways?

"Gothic Revival" was a popular architectural style in the US during the 1850's -1860s among the wealthy. Easily reproduced elements filtered down to "vernacular" houses in the 1870s-80s. This seems to be an ordinary 1870s farmhouse with a bit of style added, it's a sign of a successful farmer who had an "eye" for the "nicer" things.

I love how you mentioned they are kind of blocking the house. I never noticed that aspect. Definitely adds to the suspicion that they are hiding something. Clever choice to close the curtain, instead of having it open and airing. Adds to them being closed-off and unwelcoming. I see a partial frown between her brows, like she is anxious her dad could do something terrible. The looking away is not wanting to engage so the person will hurry on their way. He has no frown, just that unwavering stare, like a predator that wont take its eye off its prey. He feels to me that he is almost wanting the unseen person to make a wrong move. So much unspoken aggression in his stare.

@@raerae6422 I really like how you referred to his stare as predatory. That's a great way to put it, it's emotionless, but dripping with intent. He's as aggressive as you can get without making overt threats.

I don't close with the people of this region for stories, without a doubt I don't want to know up close to know.

Aww how sweet! Thanks!

I pass through Eldon a couple times a year between Ames and Alabama. I always make a stop!

I find myself looking for the pitchfork everywhere, in his face, overalls, shirtfront and such. It interests me that I don't find it much in the daughter, that I can recognize, so I think she isn't a he77fire and brimstone kind of girl.

I think that is why her face is turned a little, so she doesn't look like a salad fork or something. She has such soft curves for such a harsh life.

Oh wow, I just looked up that painting, and it's definitely enigmatic!

Thank YOU Johnny!!

You should do it! I'd watch it.

Thank you so much!!

Wood’s sister

I gave you a well deserved thumbs-up for your insight into the compositional aspects, but I can't call the painting bland, exactly. It's very far from being a favourite of mine (I much prefer Caravaggio or van Dyck, Rembrandt or Wm Bouguereau, Lord Leighton or Alma-Tadema …), but the painting's too freaky to be called bland.

YES...!

He did! He spoke about her Self Portrait!

It was one of my first videos! I could maybe revisit her work one day! :)

@@TheCanvasArtHistory ohhh that would be fabulous! In fact, Try “Le Jeune Fille Aux Gants” or perhaps one of her glamorous jewels of the 30’s!

I also wondered this! I googled some vaguely descriptive phrases and eventually managed to find it: 'The Triumph of Surrealism' by Max Ernst.

@@mikerpenny Far out! Thanks!

I do!! It’s Max Ernst’s 1973 The Triumph of Surrealism

@@TheCanvasArtHistory the only one who really knows thank uuu