Early Modern Era

     

    The Regionalist movement in the 1930s came at the peak of The Great Depression. At that time, America was in complete economic turmoil and was facing cultural and financial insecurities. Regionalism embraced subjects of the heartland, depicting what was around them in the present time, the art of storytelling. The American country was yearning for any type of reassurance and relief. I am going to examine three pieces of art from the Early Modern era from three different artists that depict art in relation to The Great Depression.  

    This iconic painting has held audiences' attention for almost a century. American Gothic was created by Grant Wood in 1930, painted on beaver board in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Wood is one of the most famous Regionalist painters. In 1930 the United States was suffering from the heaviness of the Great Depression and Americans around the nation were aching for simpler times. Inspired by a home decorated with a single Carpenter Gothic style window, Wood painted American Gothic with hopes it would be an image of reassurance to all in the weight of The Great depression with two people representing survivors. While also expressing Regionalism in his intention to depict a meaningful and positive picture about rural Midwestern American values. Although, many midwestern people and farmers and their wives specifically, felt this painting was a mockery to themselves and their lives. I myself, also being a native of Iowa just as Grand Wood was, interpret this picture to be a representation of what I would imagine rural Iowa life looking like while enduring The Great Depression. The grade school I attended growing up in rural Iowa was actually named after this artist, Grant Wood. American Gothic was actually a painting we recreated in art class that mother still has all five of my siblings hanging in my childhood home. 
    When first looking at American Gothic I see a portrait of a Farmer holding a pitchfork and maybe his wife or daughter standing next to him in front of a farmhouse. At first glance the light and cheerful palette used makes me feel just that, light and cheerful. I notice Woods' use of lines, and the different ways he mimics them the same ones throughout the painting. For example, the pitchfork prongs on the farmer's overalls. Though when I examine the painting a bit deeper I am drawn to the subjects and their demeanor and the painting takes me to a completely different place. I grab a sense of loneliness and estrangement between the two or even just as singles. I think this speaks to Grant Woods art of storytelling and really paints a picture of rural Midwestern America during and after The Great Depression.

You can view this piece here: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/sisterwendy/works/ame_large.html

Migrant Mother is a black and white photograph shot by Dorothea Lange in 1936 that became an icon for The Great Depression. The photography of the woman with the three children achieved Lange’s goal of showing that these peoples pride, strength, and spirit were more important than the fact that they were poor. Due to the substantial hardships farmers faced from The Great Depression, poverty-stricken families migrated to the fields of California in search for work only to be let down. The Resettlement Administration hired a team of photographers to capture the lives of the migrant workers with hopes to advocate for federal assistance and justify legislation. One of those photographers was Dorothea Lange. In March of 1936 Lange drove through a pea picker’s camp where rain had destroyed the pea crop and devastation was seen all around. Inside the camp Lange came across a strained woman and her seven disheveled children. This mother and her children were starving and unable to move on because they sold their car tires for their last food. Lange printed the photographs she captured of this mother and her seven children and took them to the San Francisco News and they were published in an article about the destitute pea pickers. This photo that is known as Migrant Mother came to represent the undergo of hunger, poverty, and hopelessness Americans experienced during The Great Depression. The way Lange really focuses attention on the mothers face really draws you into reading her emotions being expressed. I notice her facial expression of just despair while resting on her hand. I am drawn to the deep lines on the face of this just 32 year old woman, I feel they speak to the fight and strength she has put in for herself for her and her children through The Great Depression. The way the children are clinging on to their mother for her comfort spoke to me as the true warriors mothers are, and I can only imagine in a time like this. 

You can view this photograph here: http://100photos.time.com/photos/dorothea-lange-migrant-mother

    The last artist we're going to look at is John Steuart Curry and his painting Tornado Over Kansas, 1929, oil on canvas. Curry was well known for his paintings done in the Regionalist tradition. This piece tells a story of the inner world of Kansas farmers and depicts the struggles farmers were facing with the economic and natural disasters in The Great Depression. Curry used his life in his home state of Kansas as a quintessence of Americans lives. The painting captures a farmer and his family running to their underground cover from their home, from the tornado approaching their Kansas farm. There are so many elements of this painting that allow the viewer to imagine the subject's inner world in this moment. Starting with the facial expression Curry put on each member of the family. The mother is looking to the father as if she's waiting for her next instruction in hopes he will know what to do. The two children's faces shown both seem to be a bit more confused or frazzled. The way Curry tilted the building and the people within the frame creates a sense of presence with the tornado. Along with the subjects being closest to the light source, getting away from the tornado.

You can view this piece here: https://americangallery.wordpress.com/category/curry-john-steuart/



Work Cited

“John Steuart Curry Artworks & Famous Paintings.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist/curry-john-steuart/artworks/.

“Migrant Mother, 1936.” Https://Picturingamerica.neh.gov/, picturingamerica.neh.gov/downloads/pdfs/Resource_Guide_Chapters/PictAmer_Resource_Book_Chapter_18B.pdf.

Wood, Grant. “American Gothic.” The Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas, www.artic.edu/artworks/6565/american-gothic.