American Gothic vs Lavender Mist, Research Paper Example

Compare and Contrast essay of the following artworks: American Gothic (1930) by Grant Wood, and Number 1/Lavender Mist (1950) by Jackson Pollock.

In the paper I am going to compare two works of art, observing the historical and cultural context of their creation, the characteristics of their style, the subjects and the messages they convey. The works of art are Number 1 (Lavender Mist), 1950, gesture painting/Abstract Expressionism by Jackson Pollock’s, and American Gothic, 1930, Regionalism/American Scene by Grant Wood.

The time when Wood created his “American Gothic” was the time of Great Depression to come. After the World War I the United States consequently became the most powerful capitalistic country in the world. However, the economic boom of the postwar years had brought only impermanent prosperity to the nation. The boom was moved by non-natural and insecure forces. As a result, the stock-market Crash of 1929 came, signaling the coming of Great Depression – an enduring, harsh experience all the Americans went through. Naturally, economic crisis resulted in employment and production being greatly decreased. Wages were down by 40%, while the farm income was reduced to half. Construction practically ceased, and fifteen million people turned out to be unemployed. Politics in the country was generally dominated by economy.

No need to say, by the 1930s money was limited because of the depression. In order to make their lives joyful and entertaining, and to enjoy the living without much spending, people did what they could. Movies became hotter, parlor games and board games were admired.  People were getting together around radios to listen to the Yankees playing. The arts, like everything else in the 30’s, were dominated by the Great Depression. Those times evidenced the appearance of new art style such as Regionalist. Wood’s “American Gothic” is one of the most famous artworks of that time and that movement. Wood was actually “one of the leading figures in the Regionalist movement, an anti-modern, anti-European campaign for a purely and folklorically American art. Regionalist painters rejected the big cosmopolitan cities and depicted, in quite homely ways, rural America” (Jones).

As well as they did in 1930s, in 1950s Americans were experiencing postwar period. The end of World War II brought thousands of young servicemen back to America to regain their lives, and to start anew with as much energy as possible. New families were started, new jobs and homes found. American industry enlarged to face and satisfy peacetime needs with vigor and force never before experienced. Americans started to purchase goods not accessible during the war, which resulted in corporate expansion and increasing number of available jobs. Growth was everywhere, with great number of new opportunities and baby boom at the door. United States of 1950’s evidenced the grow of consumerism.

Naturally, the end of World War II had a great impact on economic, social and cultural life of the country. The fresh artistic viewpoint came to be and the artistic world reflected this viewpoint. Abstract Expressionism, being started off in the United States in the 1940s, experienced it growth through the 1950s. It was the first exclusively American art movement that put New York City at the center of the western art world, bringing international influence and attracting worldwide attention. Artists working in many diverse styles were highlighting impulsive and unstructured personal expression in large paintings that were purely abstract. One of the prominent expressionists of those times was an “action painter” Jackson Pollock. He was the one to claim that the creation of the work of art is of equal value with the final result meaning actual painting.

At Wood’s “American gothic” we observe two models, dressed in clothes dating from the 1890s, who are known to be Wood’s sister, Nan, and their dentist, BH McKeeby of Cedar Rapids. They stand in front of a 1880s wood-frame building constructed in the American Gothic or Carpenter’s Gothic style. The two heroes of the painting, a man and a women, are hiding their world rather than showing it off. They stand like a wall between the viewer and the white house at the background. “The house itself is a second closing of space, its front wall impenetrably neat, with blinds pulled down over the windows. Only behind that do we glimpse the blue sky and round puffy trees of pastoral joy” (Jones). The painting is perfectly realistic. The farmer is elegantly diligent and hostile simultaneously, with his pitchfork aggressively straight and sharp. His spinster daughter is earnestly staring somewhere we don’t know where, like if observing something with slight interest. Her neat white collar and carefully tied hair seem to conceal another suppressed part of her nature, some hidden sensuality probably. The artist himself claimed a picture to stand for the honest belief in the values of hearth and home. However, the painting is rather strange, sometimes even seeming to be satirical. Even though everything seems to be clear, peaceful and secure at the picture, it is actually not, everything here is ambiguous. Some bizarre indistinctness surrounds the house.

When observing “Lavender Mist” by Jackson Pollock for the first time, the initial impression you get is rather confusion than admiration. At first you see nothing but perplexing arrangement of unsystematic lines and spots. It never gets more than a confusing array of vast strokes, yet it eventually gets much more than just a painting. Pollock’s work is all about the way it was created, about the original meaning of art. The reason the abstract art has a power to impress and influence is that it minimizes the distractions processed from mental activity. When you see a distinct depiction of a lifelike scene, you direct most of your energy to manage to observe the images on the painting. However, “when you look at “Lavender Mist”, you are not distracted by meaningful images, so virtually all of your brain power is devoted to feeling. You can open yourself, let in the energy and spirit of the painting, and allow it to dance with your psyche” (Hahn).

The two paintings were created at the dramatically significant periods of time. Both Wood and Pollock are the artists of the postwar America. However, we observe meaningful difference between the two historical eras. While after the World War I United States were dispirited by horrors of Great Depression, the post-World War II America was experiencing the growth of all its spheres of operating, with production being developed, new families being started and new opportunities created. Thus, while Wood’s work is somehow reveals the social issue, presenting 19th-century farming house with its inhabitants on the first place, Pollock’s painting is all about artist’s expression of inner emotions, it goes into feelings, focusing on self-perception, ignoring the surrounding environment.

In the present paper I have discussed and compared the two works of art, which are “Number 1” (“Lavender Mist”) by Grant Wood and “American Gothic” by Jackson Pollock. The two works of art are rather intriguing. They do not convey some distinctive message, you have to think hard in order to understand what the artists are trying to illustrate. What I found truly exciting about both painting is that they were created in two periods of time, similar and different at the same time, divided by twenty-years and yet representing to drastically different societies. Surprisingly, the two paintings were created at the post-war periods, yet none of them either reveals the subject of war or conveys the message related to the war. Both Wood’s and Pollock’s works are all about hidden messages they communicate to the viewer. I don’t find anything truly attractive about them. What is exciting is the intentions the artists had when creating the discussed paintings. Anyway, it is absolutely clear that even these works of art are those hard to truly understand, those in no way appealing to one’s aesthetic sensibility, they had a significant impact on the general development of arts in America, being not only creative, but also historically meaningful.

Works Cited

Greer, Thomas H. and Gavin Lewis. A Brief History of the Western World. 6th ed. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers. 1992.

Hahn, Harley. Understanding Abstract Art. 12 June 2009. < http://www.harley.com/art/abstract-art/index.html>.

Jones, Jonathan. American Gothic, Grant Wood. 18 May 2002. 12 June 2009. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2002/may/18/art>.