...Brittnie Dean Randy Rambo ENG-1001-100 5 June 2013 Questions Within Our Eyes A man of many years dressed in nineteenth century clothing is shown standing with a much younger woman. The three most common questions most people would ask are, “Who are the man and women in the painting?” also “What’s the relationship between the young woman and the gentleman?” and last “What does their life portray?” The man in the painting is a town dentist from Wood’s hometown and the woman is Wood’s sister, Nan. Many characteristics about this painting are unique and questionable. This painting will allow viewers to expand their imagination. The American Gothic painted by Grant Wood in August of 1930 demonstrates expressionism used in the man and woman’s face, the house shown in the background, and the way of life they portray. When looking at this painting, we see a man and woman carrying the same non-expressive facial expression. As the man is starring directly at the viewer, his expression in his eyes show he is stern. As opposed to the woman, she is not looking directly at the viewer but somewhere off the distance to the left. She appears to be furrowing her eyebrows when looking in the distance, presenting herself as distracted, uninterested, or annoyed. In the early nineteenth century, having to paint a picture consumed a great amount of time; therefore they kept a neutral face to make it easier on themselves and for the artists as well. Their neutral expressions can also...
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...Grant Wood’s American Gothic painting is a portrayal of traditional American values throughout the 1930’s with its’ main emphasis on the need for a hard working labor force. The painting depicts a stern-faced farmer and his daughter in front of their house, with a Gothic-style window in the background. It is representative of traditional American rural values, where women were considered subservient to men and men made a huge commitment to their labor. The thesis of the painting can be interpreted in many different ways, however, in my opinion, Grant’s main meaning depicted in the painting is of what characterized American rural life during the 1930’s; a hardworking middle class where women, while respected, were still submissive to men. The “New Enterprise Family” is made up of a couple and their children, commonly known as the nuclear family. The family seems to be selfish in choices they make economically as they throw their grandmother out of the house when she is no longer a sensible financial decision. The picture, in my opinion, depicts the typical American family today, who is more focused on making a profit then taking care of their family members. Free enterprise is an economic system where private businesses operate free of state controls and as we can see in the “Free Enterprise Family” the family when operating without moral conduct will throw their grandmother out to help themselves advance. The “Free Enterprise Family” seems to operate with a lack of moral control...
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...Grant Wood, American Gothic English Assignment American Gothic American Gothic is a classic American painting by Wood Grant. The traditional painting was created in the year 1930. Wood paints an image of two farmers in the Midwest. Due to time period that the painting was created in (1930s), American Gothic refers to the Great Depression. Wood paints the two farmers expressions with much importance. The man looks right at the viewer with strong determined eyes. He is holding his pitchfork with strength. The woman looks of to the left of the painting. Her expression portrays fear and sadness. Behind the two subjects is a house lit up by the afternoon sun. American Gothic is a very simple painting; two people and a house. The viewers eyes looks first at the man’s intense stare and then continues to wander around the painting. Wood's choice of clothing, hairstyle, color all play important rolls in determining the time setting and to give the painting an overall mood. First of all, the color scheme is very muted one. This gives the painting a depressing mood and a one- dimensional feeling. The many vertical and horizontal lines generate eye movement from pitchfork to the coat of the man on up to the faces of both figures to the window between them; then, as the roof angles, the viewer's eye is led toward the left and right with the roofs of the house and barn. The repetition of shape with the pitchfork and the window helps the viewer to see the...
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...History of Rock and Roll Who invented rock and roll? Well, the answer is nobody. Rock music is the innovation and evolution of many different types of music from a wide variety of groups of people. No one planned rock and roll, and it took over a great deal of American culture and revolutionized popular music. Rock and roll was influenced by African American music as well as white American styles. Since the introduction of minstrel shows in America in 1840, people have created and developed many other kinds of music. Mostly originated from African Americans, swing, blues, and jazz music was an early beginning to rock music. Many musical qualities were brought with African slaves into America. Some of the qualities include improvisation, “call and response” singing, and a dynamic rhythm. They created spiritual music and blues, which later evolved into what we know today as gospel music and “rhythm and blues.” White American music is based on of folk-style songs, mostly ballads in small bands of musical instruments. At the start of the 20th century, these folk style songs became referred to as hillbilly music. The transition to country-western music began with singers like Jimmie Rodgers and Gene Autry. After World War II, soldiers returning home wanted to feel at home again. This started the era of playing music on the radio, with programs such as Grand Ole Opry, which still runs today. This genre of music used guitars, Hawaiian guitar and drums on occasion to create a new...
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...representative the “American Spirit”. Pollock’s style of painting and the similar works of his fellow colleague led to the term of action painting. While Wood’s personal style of painting was inspired by the Renaissance period or Renaissance artists, mainly Durer and van Eyck. But if both artists art works representative the “American Spirit” wouldn’t that mean also means that their techniques are similar as well? In actuality both artists’ styles are very different but express the same “ideas” just in their own ways. On one hand we have Grant Wood who was a Midwestern American whom studied art in Paris in the early 1920’s. After years of unsuccessful attempts Wood moved back the Midwest and dedicated himself to studying the characteristic of the land and it’s people in their daily life’s thus bring in the “American Spirit” expression which could be seen in his famous work American Gothic. This painting was inspired when Wood saw a farm hose build in a local version of Gothic style. In the American Gothic, Wood painted in the Gothic house that inspired him and the farmer where inspired from his sister and doctor. Now on the other have we also have Jackson Pollock who was an innovator of Abstract Expressionism. He later studied Navajo sand painting, psychology, and other variety of art for ways to express primal human nature. Pollock painted Autumn Rhythm with a style that would later be referred to as “action painting”. Compared to Grant Wood’s American Gothic that depicts a honest...
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...ENG 102 06 May 2013 Southern Aspects of Gothic Literature Southern gothic writing is a sub genre of the gothic writhing that was originated and most popular during the 1800s in Europe. Southern gothic is unique to American literature in the way that it relies on supernatural, ironic, or unusual events that guide the plot (wisegeek.org.) Unlike gothic style it uses the tools not for the purpose of suspense, but to explore the social issues, and reveal the cultural character of the American south (people.duke.edu.) It is considered to be “Grotesque” which displays a character whose negative qualities allow the author to highlight unpleasant aspects in southern culture. Its defining feature is that it symbolizes problems created by the established pattern and then questions the established pattern’s morality and ethical justification (wisegeek.org.) Some of the other specific features that this style of literature has, is its freakishness; being an outsider; imprisonment; violence; and even the sense of setting in which it takes place(wisegeek.org.) There is usually an important character that is set apart from the world by some kind of negative way, or disability (wisegeek.org.) Some characters may not follow the established cultural pattern but in the end they are considered heroes. Some kind of difference allows them to see a new way of doing things that help bring people to the dark side. When speaking of imprisonment, it is both literal and figurative (wisegeek...
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...The architectural critic Montgomery Schulyer wrote about the new St. Thomas as ‘one of the chief architectural ornaments of New York’. The ornament and detail within the church quickly made it into a recognizable monument in Manhattan. America springs to action during the spring of 1917 with resolute and celebratory emotion, while anticipating victory. The American, British, and French flags ran sequentially along the wide bustling street of Frederick Childe Hassam’s painted Allies Day, May, 1917. The painting is of an impressionistic style, which confronts the viewer with insistent images of identity and nationalism. Fifth Avenue thus became known as the Avenue of the Allies. The part of Fifth Avenue that was selected for the painting is...
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...Architecture in Society The Difference of Gothic Church and Jewish Synagogue In today’s society there are many forms of art; pictures, sculpture music and architecture to name a few. Architecture is defined in Merriam-Webster dictionary as: “the art or science of building; the art or practice of designing and building structures and especially habitable ones.” Just look around, you can see art in many buildings of today. The most prominent architecture art forms are religion structures primarily churches. The history of church architecture divides itself into periods, and into countries or regions and by religious affiliation. There are many styles and structural difference in each church. Gothic architecture made of stone that has statues on the outside and several low towers and a low spire with a cross on top of it. The floor plan is often cross-shaped. The most prominent time period is Renaissance period namely the Gothic Style of Churches. These large, often ornate and architecturally prestigious buildings were dominant features of the towns and countryside in which they stood, they had elaborate ceilings, stain glass windows and structure that made them not only marvelous construction achievement’s but true art forms. The most famous and truly a piece of art that represents this time period is Chartres Cathedral one of the finest examples of the French High Gothic style. In contrast of Gothic Churches of yesteryear is the less...
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...Southern Gothic Genre in America The Southern Gothic Genre has shaped the traditions of American Literature. Not only did it shape the traditions, it introduced Americans to the total opposite of the conservative writing style. The traits of this genre includes: violence, unrequited love, race, class, social structure, being an outsider, and good vs. evil. The stories that have been read in class include: “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, “The Possibility”, and “A Rose For Emily”. All of these stories fit the traits of the Southern Gothic Genre. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a dark tale about a family who was murdered. The first example of the traits used in this story is violence. A misfit who has escaped from prison murders a whole family in the woods, in cold blood. Another trait used by O’Connor is the trait of unrequited love. The author uses this by mentioning the grandmother remembering that the misfit is the grandmother’s son. Lastly, the trait of being an outsider is used. Flannery uses this trait by making the grandmother an outsider in several instances. Such as when the grandmother wants to go to a different vacation spot than the rest of the family....
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...Architecture in Society The Difference of Gothic Church and Jewish Synagogue In today’s society there are many forms of art; pictures, sculpture music and architecture to name a few. Architecture is defined in Merriam-Webster dictionary as: “the art or science of building; the art or practice of designing and building structures and especially habitable ones.” Just look around, you can see art in many buildings of today. The most prominent architecture art forms are religion structures primarily churches. The history of church architecture divides itself into periods, and into countries or regions and by religious affiliation. There are many styles and structural difference in each church. Gothic architecture made of stone that has statues on the outside and several low towers and a low spire with a cross on top of it. The floor plan is often cross-shaped. The most prominent time period is Renaissance period namely the Gothic Style of Churches. These large, often ornate and architecturally prestigious buildings were dominant features of the towns and countryside in which they stood, they had elaborate ceilings, stain glass windows and structure that made them not only marvelous construction achievement’s but true art forms. The most famous and truly a piece of art that represents this time period is Chartres Cathedral one of the finest examples of the French High Gothic style. In contrast of Gothic Churches of yesteryear is the less...
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...Gothic Art: Architectural Art Comparison Christopher Hampton Art Appreciation: HUMA205-1303B-11 September 15, 2013 Sarah Saczynski American Intercontinental University Abstract The purpose of this paper is to evaluate pieces of architectural art. Both are Gothic in nature from two different centuries. Contrasts and similarities will be discussed. The historical nature as well as how it may or may not have changed will be covered as well. The buildings chosen were the S. Maria Novella and the Segovia Cathedral. The first cathedral S. Maria Novella was created in Florence, Italy from 1456 to 1470 C.E. It is Gothic with an Italian Renaissance facade. (Artifice, 2013) As it is a building of course it is three-dimensional. Green and white marble was used in the construction. Load bearing masonry technique was used in order to use marble in such a way, as it would support the weight of construction. The artist made two different styles combine to look as one. Originally Romanesque in style, Alberti “used large curved triangular to bridge the gaps from high and low roofs”. (Bramblett, 2013) As a house of worship at that time it had to represent the Lord on earth and in the Middle Ages this meant it had to be almost regal in splendor. The way Alberti combined the two styles was an attempt to pay homage to the Roman Pantheon. The interior completely Gothic in style had scrolls of religious stories as everyone was unable to hear the sermons in a building of...
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...The southern gothic style is one that employs the use of macabre, ironic events to examine the values of the American south. Two of the most iconic writers to use this style are Flannery O’ Conner and William Faulkner. O’Conner’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” which depicts a southern family’s demise at the hands of a ruthless murderer, and Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” in which a well-to-do woman is discovered to have the rotting corpse of her lover in her bedroom, are two perfect examples of southern gothic stories. While both O’Conner and Faulkner use the southern gothic style, however, they use it to illuminate different aspects of southern culture. The most important and defining aspect of southern gothic writing is the use of macabre, or grotesque, events. Such events are easily identified in both stories. “A Rose for Emily, told through the eyes of an entire southern town, depicts a woman named Emily, who is the last remaining member of a once great family. The town watches as Emily grows more and more estranged as years pass. Eventually, when she dies alone, the town enters the house and is shocked to find the badly decomposed body of her lover, who had been assumed to have left Emily years before, in the bed of an upstairs room. Faulkner ends the story on a decidedly gruesome note, writing “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible...
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...To Kill a Mockingbird and the southern gothic genre In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, the author Harper Lee utilizes the genre of southern gothic. The southern gothic genre is the best choice for the story that author Harper Lee wanted to tell. The reason why is because this genre allows the story to have an eerie mood fitting with the narrator, Scout who is a child and sees certain places or people as uncomfortably creepy or as jarring. It also allows the issue of unjust racism in the most inappropriate places, in this novel, it is a court of law which should be the most just and fair place, but is not. This story takes place in the early 1930’s and follows Scout Finch when her father, Atticus begins to defend a black man accused of rape. This man's name is Tom Robinson and this case shows Scout and her brother Jem how atrocious the racist ways of thinking happen and how they affect people in their lives. Southern gothic is a genre of writing found only in American Literature. It...
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...American Art before and after World War II Marty Rieth ARTS/125 June 27, 2016 Sarah Baer American Art before and after World War II The objective for the following paper is to discuss issues concerning American art before and after World War II. The discussion will include an examination of the artwork of three artists. Two artists will have worked during the Great Depression and one artist will have been an Abstract Expressionist. In discussing the artists’ work, a description of each work and its style will be included. An examination into the Great Depression and the purpose of artwork created during that time, whether they were tools for social reform, and other types of messaging that were present in the works will be discussed. Post-World War II Abstract Expressionism and how it differed from art work of the 1930’s will be discussed. Finally, an explanation into the style of the chosen Abstract Expressionists work and why they were interested in the style will be discussed (Was there a meaning to their work?). Artist Examinations Two artist that come to mind when speaking of The Great Depression are Maynard Dixon and Grant Wood. The artist Maynard Dixon showed his artistic abilities during The Great Depression by creating images in a style dubbed social realism. One of Dixon’s famous paintings was called Springtime on Bear Mountain. The illustration is of a plot of land from the mountainous western countryside. In the front is flat land where a...
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...have chosen the famous painting American Gothic by Grant Wood. The subject matter of this painting is a middle aged couple standing in front of a farm, the man is holding a pitchfork. While the woman is looking off in the distance of the man the facial expressions of the couple looks serous as if they are unhappy with their marriage. In the background of the of the painting is a house with a gothic style window hinting the name American Gothic for the painting. Grant Wood painted this painting in 1930 for an exhibition in Chicago. The panting give me a type of mysterious feeling due to the facial expressions of the man and woman. The colors used in the painting are mostly dark giving the feeling of depression towards the viewers. Wood may have done this because of the time period it was painted, which was during the being of the depression. Also this could be the reason of the unhappiness that is expressed in the faces of the man and woman....
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