Grant Wood: American Gothic and Other Fables
Mar 2–June 10, 2018
Prints, Illustrations, and Commercial Projects
5
Grant Wood’s experience as a decorative artist led him to view fine and applied art as being equal. In addition to designing textiles, an armchair and accompanying ottoman, and a Steuben glass vase, he illustrated two books and made cover images for eight others. The first book he illustrated was the 1935 children’s book Farm on the Hill, written by Madeline Darrough Horn. In 1936, he illustrated a deluxe publication of Sinclair Lewis’s novel Main Street (1920). As he often did with his paintings, he asked friends to pose for the illustrations, dressing them in costume for the occasion.
Wood’s desire to reach a broad audience with his art likewise led him to make lithographs through the Associated American Artists (AAA), which published and sold prints by major American artists in department stores and by direct mail for five dollars apiece. Making affordable art appealed to Wood, who completed eighteen lithographs for the AAA between 1937 and 1941.
Grant Wood Lounge Chair and Ottoman for Grant Wood Lounge Chair, 1938
Grant Wood Lounge Chair and Ottoman for Grant Wood Lounge Chair, 1938. Tufted rolled arm chair with cellulosic and wool fiber with upholstery on wood frame and tufted footstool with cellulosic and wool fiber with upholstery on wood frame, 32 1⁄2 x 33 x 38 1⁄2 in. (82.6 x 83.8 x 97.8 cm) and 16 x 27 x 33 in. (40.6 x 68.6 x 83.8 cm). Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa, City of Davenport Art Collection, Grant Wood Archive; museum purchase with funds provided by the Friends of Art Acquisition Fund 1965.243.GW and 1965.244.GW. © Figge Art Museum, successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
In 1935 Wood moved into a large mid-nineteenth century Italianate-style house in Iowa City and spent the next two years renovating and decorating the home in its original Victorian style. He designed this lounge chair and ottoman for his living room. Henry R. Lubben, a Cedar Rapids furniture maker, manufactured the design in a variety of fabrics, with or without tasseled fringe, and sold it in department stores throughout the Midwest as the Grant Wood Lounge Chair.