{"product_id":"grant-wood-a-life-9780307266293","title":"Grant Wood: A Life","description":"He claimed to be \"the plainest kind of fellow you can find. There isn't a single thing I've done, or experienced,\" said Grant Wood, \"that's been even the least bit exciting.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWood was one of America's most famous regionalist painters; to love his work was the equivalent of loving America itself. In his time, he was an \"almost mythical figure,\" recognized most supremely for his hard-boiled farm scene, \u003ci\u003eAmerican Gothic\u003c\/i\u003e, a painting that has come to reflect the essence of America's traditional values--a simple, decent, homespun tribute to our lost agrarian age. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this major new biography of America's most acclaimed, and misunderstood, regionalist painter, Grant Wood is revealed to have been anything but plain, or simple . . . \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eR. 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 \"the booboisie\" of small-town America. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWe see Wood as an artist haunted and inspired by the images of childhood; by the complex relationship with his father (stern, pious, the \"manliest of men\"); 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). \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWe see Wood's homosexuality and how his studied masculinity was a ruse that shaped his work. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHere is Wood's life and work explored more deeply and insightfully than ever before. Drawing on letters, the artist's unfinished autobiography, his sister's writings, and many never-before-seen documents, Evans's book is a dimensional portrait of a deeply complicated artist who became a \"National Symbol.\" It is as well a portrait of the American art scene at a time when America's Calvinistic spirit and provincialism saw Europe as decadent and artists were divided between red-blooded patriotic men and \"hothouse aesthetes.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThomas Hart Benton said of Grant Wood: \"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 Wood's works.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Knopf Publishing Group\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/05\/2010\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780307266293\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 432\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.82lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.52h x 6.60w x 1.49d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAward:\u003c\/b\u003e Triangle Awards - Finalist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAward:\u003c\/b\u003e Lambda Literary Awards - Finalist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAward:\u003c\/b\u003e Lambda Literary Awards - Finalist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2011\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/01\/2010 pg. 20\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/01\/2010\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/19\/2010\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/31\/2010 pg. 16\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e 11\/07\/2010 pg. 42\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist Editors Choice\/Adult\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/01\/2011 pg. 6\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/01\/0001\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"R. Tripp Evans","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52571118502069,"sku":"9780307266293","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/grant-wood-a-life-9780307266293","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}