Thomas Hart Benton

John Steuart Curry

Charles Albert Morgenthaler

Frederick E. Shane

Grant Wood

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American Regionalism: Visions from the Heartland

Grant Wood

American, 1892–1942

Born into a Quaker family in Anamosa, Iowa, Grant Wood’s depictions of rural life in the Midwest reflect the humble, “down-home” values of his upbringing. Wood eventually became a leader of the Regionalist movement, and his painting American Gothic (now in the Chicago Art Institute) is perhaps the most famous example of the genre. Wood described his goals as an artist as follows:

I am building an art of, and for, a specific locality. If I have reached an audience wider than my own region, it is only proof that Iowa is a cross section of the world.

February

The lithograph, February, was created in 1941, a year before Wood’s death in February of 1942. The print depicts the dark silhouettes of three horses against a gray sky. Wood suggested the bitter winter weather by layering angular hatch lines on top of one another to create the illusion of cold, misty atmosphere. Some critics speculate that this eerie image might have reflected Wood’s emotional state as he battled pancreatic cancer at the end of his life.

Grant Wood
American (1892–1942)
February
1941
Lithograph
(93.16)
Gift of Mrs. Donald Alexander Ross

March

March is one of eighteen Grant Wood lithographs published in editions of 250 by Associated American Artists. In March, a farmer in a horse-drawn cart struggles against the spring wind. Although farm workers shape the landscape with fences, roads, houses, and crops, they cannot entirely control the vicissitudes of nature.

American Regionalism Online Exhibit Home

Grant Wood
American (1892–1942)
March
1941
Lithograph
(83.188)
Gift of Professor and Mrs. Chester G. Starr