The Couple with the Pitchfork: American Gothic from Easel to Icon

A can’t-miss event with preeminent Grant Wood scholar and award-winning art historian Wanda M. Corn. Corn’s lecture will be given in honor of Lynette L. Pohlman, retired director (2026) of University Museums. Held in the Memorial Union, Sun Room

Grant Wood’s American Gothic is an instantly recognizable painting that is seen as either “awkward farm portrait” or “meme-worthy icon.” Inspired by a small home in Eldon, Iowa (still standing), Wood, a leading figure of the Regionalist art movement, celebrated the common people of the American heartland in this and many other well-known scenes.

Award-winning historian of American art and culture Wanda Corn is stopping by Iowa State to unpack the heavily parodied painting’s rise to fame and its ongoing reinventions in popular culture.

This lively lecture, presented in honor of Lynette L. Pohlman, retired Warren & Beverly Madden Director and Chief Curator of University Museums, is Corn’s only Central Iowa stop on her national book tour. This program is organized by University Museums at Iowa State University in partnership with Princeton University Press. Generous support for this program was given by Warren and Beverly Madden, the Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government), and University Museums Membership.