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In this abundantly illustrated book, award-winning art historian Wanda Corn tracks the fortunes and vicissitudes of Grant Wood鈥檚 American Gothic, his 1930 realist painting of a rural man and woman posed stiffly before a modest white house with a gothic-styled window. She explores Wood鈥檚 scrappy formation as a disadvantaged midwestern artist and his unexpected, overnight fame when American Gothic premiered at the Art Institute of Chicago and was purchased for the museum鈥檚 collection. After a close look at the painting鈥檚 volatile reputation for its first thirty years, Corn turns to that historic moment in the 1960s when the couple with their pitchfork left the museum and journeyed into the streets. Shedding their preciousness as art, they became a versatile, free-floating image open to anyone鈥檚 miming or reuse. That moment also found Corn beginning her long career in art history, and she interweaves her story with that of the couple鈥檚 evolving appearances in pop art, cartoons, advertisements, and grassroots reenactments. She offers compelling explanations for the painting鈥檚 entry into the pantheon of cult visual images. Today, Wood鈥檚 couple stands alongside other art icons: Whistler鈥檚 mother, Rodin鈥檚 thinker, Hokusai鈥檚 wave, Munch鈥檚 screamer, and the enigmatic beauty in Leonardo鈥檚 Mona Lisa.

A highly readable and personalized study of a painter and the work he would forever be tied to, The Couple with the Pitchfork sheds critical light on the cultural forces that transformed an image with humble roots into a global icon whose reach and charisma extends far beyond the world of art.