Michele Ferrucci
Mr. Turtola
December 9, 2008
Compare and Contrast
American gothic art work can be very appealing to the eye. These images have different
meaning to many people. Grant Wood and Gordon Parks both became famous for their
American gothic work. Both artists received a lot of backlash which for Wood’s remained silent
where Parks was known for gritty photos. As different as both pictures may seem they are also
very much alike.
American Gothic by Grant Wood’s is a colored painting of a young women with a older
man holding a pitch fork which symbolized hard labor standing in front of a white house.
Whereas Gordon Park had taken a black and white photograph of a black women standing in
front of the American flag holding a mop in one hand and a broom in another. Wood’s painting
is from 1930 in Eldon, Iowa where he noticed the white house and thought the man and women
would be the type of people who would live in this house. Where as Park’s photograph is from
1942 when he met a charwoman who mopped floors in the Farm Security Administration
building in Washington D.C., which he was amazed with the amount of discrimination there and
then asks to take her picture. Wood’s who painted his picture in steps the models who sat
separately never once standing in front of the house unlike Park’s who took Ella Watson picture
wright on the spot in front of the American flag.
The two artist do have some similarities with there portraits being properly recognized.
As well as having so much controversy on the meaning behind the picture. Each of the artist
have a white house in there work. Wood’s who has a carpenter gothic style white house in his
painting and Park’s who took his photograph in the White house. Grant Wood and Gordon Parks
both captured the idea of a hard worker. In addition the artist both portrayed America in their
own way. Parks felt America was about bigotry and discrimination and Grant felt America
represented endurance in hard times.
American gothic art in the 19th century had a lot of feeling behind it. This style of art
evolved into ridicule while remaining an inspiration to popular culture. All the controversy that
surrounded the art was the beginning of Grant Wood and Gordon Parks becoming well known
for these pieces. When it comes to art you have to figure out the meaning for yourself.