What is the painting of a farmer and his wife and a Pitchfork?

Bruce Chadwick is a lecturer at Rutgers University.He is a professor at New Jersey City University.He was an editor for the New York Daily News.The person can be reached at bchadwick@njcu.edu.

Ask them about the painting and they will say yes.Of course!There is a couple and a farm.

The painting of a grim looking man and woman, the man with the pitchfork and a farm house in the Midwest in 1930, has been called "America'sMona Lisa" and justifiably so.

Grant Wood's painting is a triumph.The tragedy is that he is only known for that work when, in fact, he drew hundreds of paintings and sketches about life in the Midwest during the 1920s and thirties, gorgeous, memorable pieces of art that are just unforgettable when you see them.

The Whitney Museum wants to change that.There is an exhibit of Wood's work at the museum.Several large galleries were devoted to his paintings and they tell a wonderful story with vivid colors of Midwesterners who were determined to survive the Depression in the 1930s.

One of the first paintings you see when you walk into the exhibit is a lustrous sketch of a colonial era mansion in a deep green forest.The man on the horse waved his hat to the people in the home.The opening of this historic look at the Mid-west is gorgeous.

There are many portraits of women that are clear.One of them features his mother, who he called a pioneer of the mid-west.His Great Aunt is in another room.

George Washington was reprimanded by his dad for chopping down a cherry tree, but there were two paintings of President Hoover's birthplace.There is a beautiful version of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, with a huge church as the centerpiece.There is a 1920s portrait of a boy holding a football, a man swinging a golf club, and a woman trying to buy a chicken.There are many paintings of the Depression era Iowa farm villages.There are sketches of Iowa farm fields.Stone City, Iowa, with its quaint bridge, was painted by wood in 1930.There are paintings of springtime in Iowa.Wood's people are very realistic and appear to have just jumped from the room onto the canvas.

The exhibit pays tribute to Wood and his work on the Depression and the people of the Midwest.On a cold day in New York, there was snow all over the place.

Wood, who lived in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, spent the 1920s trying to copy French impressionist art and made several trips to Europe to study that art form.He decided by the late 1920s to use an impressionistic style in his American paintings.His very own, strong, American style emerged.

The centerpiece of the exhibit was jammed with people on the day that I was there.There were two dozen or so people looking at it.The man and woman in the painting are related to Wood.They are standing in front of a house.The sister always complained that the dentist made her look too old, even though he was thrilled to be in the picture.People think they are a pair of married farmers.Wood said they are supposed to represent sturdy, strong Americans and that the photo is a satire of grumpy, stern Midwesterners.

This anecdote is to show you how little people know about the painting.A woman with blonde hair, wearing a short blue coat, with her husband, stopped in front of the security guard at the entrance to the gallery.

Many people had their pictures taken in front of the work of art.

In 1930, the painting became a sensation.Art critics have told their readers that it represented the Midwest, America, the nuclear family, or the rural lifestyle of the Depression.They are going on for more pages.

The guide said it was the best.The woman in a dark brown dress, with a big smile on her face, shrugged when asked why "American Gothic" is so famous.

I think there is something for everyone.She said that it intrigues people in many different ways.The painting has appeared in cartoons, newspaper drawings, film and television for decades, but you can't say why it is so wonderful.

Barbara Haskell did a great job in selecting what paintings to use and how to stage the exhibit.

It is well organized.There are portraits, farm art, landscape paintings, women, murals, a spectacular, colorful, large stained-glass window he created to honor America's war dead, and even artwork he did for Sinclair Lewis' book, Main Street.The order in which you look at them gives completeness to the exhibit.She and her associates wrote detailed descriptions of the work.You learned a lot when you finished.She hung "American Gothic" on one wall alone, so visitors could get a good look at it, and she chose works that underscore Wood's theme all of his life, that Americans are good and strong people and will defeat the Depression.

There is a magnificent view of Lower Manhattan and the Hudson River from the window behind the exhibit on the fifth floor.

A guide finished talking about paintings of Iowa when an 8 or nine-year-old kid looked up at his mom and said "Iowa does not look at all like New York City."