Reviews
This biography of the painting's creator, Grant Wood, introduces readers to a shy artist who worked in the style now called Regionalism to represent his midwestern surroundings. Kirkus Review, -- KIRKUS REVIEWS, Pointer, March 1996 The painting American Gothic has become so ubiquitous that children may associate it with cartoons or cereal boxes without realizing its artistic origins. This biography of the painting's creator, Grant Wood, introduces readers to a shy artist who worked in the style now called Regionalism to represent his midwestern surroundings. Wood's dreamy nature didn't always fit with the rigors of Iowa farm life into which he was born. Duggleby includes many anecdotes from Wood's childhood, to help readers understand thc boy's struggle to become an artist. The biography is supplemented with plenty of large black-and-white and full-color reproductions of his art, which serve as illustrations for Wood's life story. Photos are used, too: A particularly interesting one is of the two models for Wood's most famous painting. The only oddity in this volume is a tacked on ending: three pages of instructions for drawing chickens. Bland art instructions read like filler in an otherwise eloquent volume. (Biography. 8-12) -- SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, May 1996 The most famous American painting may be Wood's American Gothic, with its weathered, pitchfork-holding farmer and an aproned wife. Readers meet the mid-Western farm boy who studied art in France and Germany, but always returned to America's heartland. His style was clean and photographically precise his landscapes "...real--and not quite real--at the same time." Critics called his style "Regionalism" and began to notice and celebrate American painters. Duggleby's title is fittingly large and square, with cover and endpapers decorated with cows, chickens, and farm implements. Wood's painting's are beautifully reproduced, most in full color, and the wide margins, decorated chapter headings, and clear typeface make the book a pleasure to read. The author write's with great skill telling Wood's story not simply with dates and places, but with anecdotes, descriptions, and snatches of conversation. He brings the artist to life--his shyness and stubborness, his dreams and disappointments, his way of winning friends and his determination to paint in his own way. He makes Wood out to be a person worth knowing and knowing about. Few books, if any, are available on the subject. This gem of a book is marred only by a lack of documentation. -- BOSTON BOOK REVIEW, September 1996 Artist in Overalls, a biography of the great American artist Grant Wood, is about integrity and perseverance. Wood was born on a farm in Iowa; his childhood, while poor in the economic sense, was rich in rolling fields, beautiful woods, and those "amber waves of grain"--a phase that fits Wood's paintings exactly. Wood began to draw at an early age. Lacking materials, he took charrred pieces of wood from the kitchen stove and drew on the clean white insides of cracker boxes. He drew everything he knew--the wavy fields, chickens, streams, whatever he saw. After his father died, and his family moved to town, Wood often traveled miles in the evening to take art courses. In early adulthood, he once simply showed up in an art class at the University of Iowa and, since no one inquired as to his right to be there he stayed. In addition to poverty, Wood had to withstand criticism from friends and family for not looking for "honest work." He was eventually hired to teach art by a school principal. Although aware that his was an unconventional teaching style, she realized that Wood was imparting something immeasuraable to his student. During a subsequent trip to Paris, he was exposed to Impressionism, which, however, failed to sway him. Visiting a museum he experienced an epiphany of sorts, realizing that the clean lines of Gothic art were what he was seeking. Out of this relization came two paintings--Woman with Plants and American Gothic--which established his, -- KIRKUS REVIEWS, Pointer, March 1996 The painting American Gothic has become so ubiquitous that children may associate it with cartoons or cereal boxes without realizing its artistic origins. This biography of the painting's creator, Grant Wood, introduces readers to a shy artist who worked in the style now called Regionalism to represent his midwestern surroundings. Wood's dreamy nature didn't always fit with the rigors of Iowa farm life into which he was born. Duggleby includes many anecdotes from Wood's childhood, to help readers understand thc boy's struggle to become an artist. The biography is supplemented with plenty of large black-and-white and full-color reproductions of his art, which serve as illustrations for Wood's life story. Photos are used, too: A particularly interesting one is of the two models for Wood's most famous painting. The only oddity in this volume is a tacked on ending: three pages of instructions for drawing chickens. Bland art instructions read like filler in an otherwise eloquent volume. (Biography. 8-12) -- SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, May 1996 The most famous American painting may be Wood's American Gothic, with its weathered, pitchfork-holding farmer and an aproned wife. Readers meet the mid-Western farm boy who studied art in France and Germany, but always returned to America's heartland. His style was clean and photographically precise his landscapes "...real--and not quite real--at the same time." Critics called his style "Regionalism" and began to notice and celebrate American painters. Duggleby's title is fittingly large and square, with cover and endpapers decorated with cows, chickens, and farm implements. Wood's painting's are beautifully reproduced, most in full color, and the wide margins, decorated chapter headings, and clear typeface make the book a pleasure to read. The author write's with great skill telling Wood's story not simply with dates and places, but with anecdotes, descriptions, and snatches of conversation. He brings the artist to life--his shyness and stubborness, his dreams and disappointments, his way of winning friends and his determination to paint in his own way. He makes Wood out to be a person worth knowing and knowing about. Few books, if any, are available on the subject. This gem of a book is marred only by a lack of documentation. -- BOSTON BOOK REVIEW, September 1996 Artist in Overalls, a biography of the great American artist Grant Wood, is about integrity and perseverance. Wood was born on a farm in Iowa; his childhood, while poor in the economic sense, was rich in rolling fields, beautiful woods, and those "amber waves of grain"--a phase that fits Wood's paintings exactly. Wood began to draw at an early age. Lacking materials, he took charrred pieces of wood from the kitchen stove and drew on the clean white insides of cracker boxes. He drew everything he knew--the wavy fields, chickens, streams, whatever he saw. After his father died, and his family moved to town, Wood often traveled miles in the evening to take art courses. In early adulthood, he once simply showed up in an art class at the University of Iowa and, since no one inquired as to his right to be there he stayed. In addition to poverty, Wood had to withstand criticism from friends and family for not looking for "honest work." He was eventually hired to teach art by a school principal. Although aware that his was an unconventional teaching style, she realized that Wood was imparting something immeasuraable to his student. During a subsequent trip to Paris, he was exposed to Impressionism, which, however, failed to sway him. Visiting a museum he experienced an epiphany of sorts, realizing that the clean lines of Gothic art were what he was seeking. Out of this relization came two paintings--Woman with Plants and American Gothic--which established his -- -, This biography of the painting's creator, Grant Wood, introduces readers to a shy artist who worked in the style now called Regionalism to represent his midwestern surroundings. Kirkus Review -- -
