Personal Interpretation of "American Gothic" (Grant Wood)

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My Interpretation of "American Gothic"

Heyho guys, hope you are all well. Today I present you my variation of "American Gothic".

How did the artist get the idea to draw such picture?

The American painter Grant Wood, who lived from 1891 to 1942, is the creator of this work of art. Grant Wood grew up as a child on a farm in Iowa, but he was specially trained in fine arts and even went to Europe for years to study. Through this trip, Mr. Wood discovered Flemish painting, the German Renaissance, and something called "Neue Sachlichkeit" (don't know how to translate it, an artistic movement that developed in Germany around 1920 and was the answer to Expressionism.

In 1930 he finally painted his famous masterpiece the 'American Gothic', at the beginning of the Great Depression, the economic crisis that followed the stock market crash of 1929 and plunged the American rural population into great poverty. Is it time again in 2022 to create such a masterpiece? It is said that every 80 to 100 years such a financial crash takes place, because the banking system is designed for it.

Like all artworks, various objects, characters and shapes have a meaning. So does the fork.
One can say that the fork represents a kind of third figure in this painting. If you look a little closer, you can see a fork shape in the original artwork also on the man's dungarees, on his face and on the upper window of the house. Even the posture of the fork has a own meaning.
While a normal farmer would point it downwards to avoid any kind of injury, the fork in the picture is facing the viewer with the tips pointing upwards. There are, of course, very different interpretations: Thus, for example, it could be a way of symbolically trying to prevent the devil or evil from entering the house.
Others rumor it could be an allusion to sexuality, which was considered perverse in the society of that time around 1930 of the Midwest, which was characterized by a certain puritanism.

Or the man is telling us something like "no entry" with this gesture, possibly to protect the secrets that lie buried in this house? Why else are the curtains drawn in the middle of the day? What is the mystery around this house? What is hidden from the eye of the beholder?

Yet another interpretation is as follows: This gloomy mood and atmosphere, combined with the worried look of the woman in the black dress looking towards the man can remind the viewer of the mourning for a certain idea, an old pattern must go ? An old idea of America lost in the severe economic crisis of the 1930s perhaps?

What do you interpret into it?
For me it could also flatly represent the cover of a US horror movie. After all, so many of them take place in the countryside of America isn't it? The original artwork is a bit creepy. I hope I could take the creepiness out of my interpretation.

Source (Screenshot and some informations): https://culturezvous.com/en/hidden-meanings-american-gothic-grant-wood-analysis/

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