Grant Wood's secrets / Sue Taylor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Taylor, Sue, 1949- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wood, Grant, 1891-1942.

Wood, Grant.

Painters--United States--Biography.

Painters.

United States.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xxi, 328 pages : illustrations (some color), portraits (some color) ; 24 cm

Distribution:

[Charlottesville, VA] : University of Virginia Press.

Place of Publication:

Newark, Delaware : University of Delware Press, 2020.

Summary:

Incorporating copious archival research and original close readings of American artist Grant Wood's iconic as well as lesser-known works, Grant Wood's Secrets reveals how his sometimes anguished psychology was shaped by his close relationship with his mother and how he channeled his lifelong oedipal guilt into his art. Presenting Wood's abortive autobiography "Return from Bohemia" for the first time ever, Sue Taylor integrates the artist's own recollections into interpretations of his art. As Wood dressed in overalls and boasted about his beloved Midwest, he consciously engaged in regionalist strategies, performing a farmer masquerade of sorts. In doing so, he also posed as conventionally masculine, hiding his homosexuality from his rural community. Thus, he came to experience himself as a double man. This book conveys the very real threats under which Wood lived and pays tribute to his resourceful responses, which were often duplicitous and have baffled art historians who typically take them at face value.

Contents:

List of illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: A family affair

Chapter 2: Fear and desire

Chapter 3: Queer habits of dissembling

Chapter 4: The ground itself

Appendix: "Return from Bohemia"

Chronology

Endnotes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-315) and index.

Other Format:

Electronic version: Taylor, Sue, 1949- Grant Wood's secrets.

ISBN:

9781644531655

1644531658

OCLC:

1101565887