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Grant Wood
Iowa
Minneapolis
Art Institute of Chicago
European
Germany
France
Europe
the Midwestern United States
American regionalism
Before we begin our tour, I'd like to give you some background information on the painter Grant Wood - we'll be seeing much of his work today. Wood was born in 1881 in Iowa farm country, and became interested in art very early in life. Although he studied art in both Minneapolis and at the Art Institute of Chicago, the strongest influences on his art were European. He spent time in both Germany and France and his study there helped shape his own stylized form of realism. When he returned to Iowa, Wood applied the stylistic realism he had learned in Europe to the rural life he saw around him and that he remembered from his childhood around the turn of the century. His portraits of farm families imitate the static formalism of photographs of early settlers posed in front of their homes. His paintings of farmers at work, and of their tools and animals, demonstrate a serious respect for the life of the Midwestern United States. By the 1930s, Wood was a leading figure of the school of art called "American regionalism". In an effort to sustain a strong Midwestern artistic movement, Wood established an institute of Midwestern art in his home state. Although the institute failed, the paintings you are about to see preserve Wood's vision of pioneer farmers.
在开始我们的旅途之前,我想给你一些关于画家Grant Wood 的背景信息,我们今天将会看到很多他的作品 Wood1882年出生于爱荷华州一个乡村,在他很早的时候就对艺术非常感兴趣。尽管他曾经在明尼阿波里斯市和芝加哥艺术学院学习,但是最他具有深刻影响的时期是他在欧洲学习的时候,他在德国和法国花了时间学习,其研究成果帮助他在现实主义画派中形成了自己的风格形式。 当他回到爱荷华州,Wood将其在欧洲学习到的现实主义画法应用到了他所见到的乡村风格的生活环境中,并回忆起他童年时代所的到的乐趣。他的关于农村家庭的肖像画模仿了早期的定居者在他们家门口所拍摄的照片的静态形式。他关于农民劳作的画,还有他们的工具和动物,深深的受到了美国中西部地区的生活的影响。在19世纪30年代,Wood成为了被称为“美国地方画派”的领军人物。 在一场强力的推动美国中西部艺术的运动中,Wood在他的老家成立了一个中西部艺术协会,尽管这个协会最后解散了,但是你所看到的画都是Wood所展示的拓荒者-农民。 ——译文来自: zaraluo