[ePub] Fool the World: The Oral History of a Band Called Pixies by Josh Frank; Caryn Ganz in Arts-Photography

Description

He claimed to be ldquo;the plainest kind of fellow you can find. There isnrsquo;t a single thing Irsquo;ve done; or experienced;rdquo; said Grant Wood; ldquo;thatrsquo;s been even the least bit exciting.rdquo; Wood was one of Americarsquo;s most famous regionalist painters; to love his work was the equivalent of loving America itself. In his time; he was an ldquo;almost mythical figure;rdquo; recognized most supremely for his hard-boiled farm scene; American Gothic; a painting that has come to reflect the essence of Americarsquo;s traditional valuesmdash;a simple; decent; homespun tribute to our lost agrarian age. In this major new biography of Americarsquo;s most acclaimed; and misunderstood; regionalist painter; Grant Wood is revealed to have been anything but plain; or simple . . . R. Tripp Evans reveals the true complexity of the man and the image Wood so carefully constructed of himself. Grant Wood called himself a farmer-painter but farming held little interest for him. He appeared to be a self-taught painter with his scenes of farmlands; farm workers; and folklore but he was classically trained; a sophisticated artist who had studied the Old Masters and Flemish art as well as impressionism. He lived a bohemian life and painted in Paris and Munich in the 1920s; fleeing what H. L. Mencken referred to as ldquo;the booboisierdquo; of small-town America. We see Wood as an artist haunted and inspired by the images of childhood; by the complex relationship with his father (stern; pious; the ldquo;manliest of menrdquo;); with his sister and his beloved mother (Wood shared his studio and sleeping quarters with his mother until her death at seventy-seven; he was forty-four). We see Woodrsquo;s homosexuality and how his studied masculinity was a ruse that shaped his work.Here is Woodrsquo;s life and work explored more deeply and insightfully than ever before. Drawing on letters; the artistrsquo;s unfinished autobiography; his sisterrsquo;s writings; and many never-before-seen documents; Evansrsquo;s book is a dimensional portrait of a deeply complicated artist who became a ldquo;National Symbol.rdquo; It is as well a portrait of the American art scene at a time when Americarsquo;s Calvinistic spirit and provincialism saw Europe as decadent and artists were divided between red-blooded patriotic men and ldquo;hothouse aesthetes.rdquo; Thomas Hart Benton said of Grant Wood: ldquo;When this new America looks back for landmarks to help gauge its forward footsteps; it will find a monument standing up in the midst of the wreckage . . . This monument will be made out of Grant Woodrsquo;s works.rdquo;From the Hardcover edition.