America after the Fall: Iconic Depression-era art in London

published 21 February 2017

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(Image credit: The Art Institute of Chicago, Alfred Stieglitz Collection, gift of Georgia O’Keeffe. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / DACS 2016)

American Gothic sits in such esteemed company as the Mona Lisa and Edward Munch's The Scream as being one of the most parodied paintings of all time – so much so there's even a website dedicated to it. You might have seen spoofs on the covers of magazines, in political satire, cartoons and advertising, or even flicked through the amusing gallery of visitors to Eldon, Iowa, who have recreated the familiar scene against the backdrop of the famous farmhouse. But outside the painting's permanent home in the Art Institute of Chicago, chances are many who recognise it will never have seen it in person – until now.

For the first time the painting will be leaving US shores, as it becomes the centrepiece of a new exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London exploring American art in the turbulent decade following the Wall Street Crash of 1929. In an era defined by economic instability, social upheaval and mass urbanisation and industrialisation under Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, artists sought to capture these changes in diverse ways, showcased in the varied assortment of styles brought together in this wide-ranging display.

Beyond Grant Wood's landmark work, it will include seminal pieces from such names as Georgia O'Keeffe, Philip Guston and Edward Hopper, grouped thematically to explore the critical issues affecting society at the time. It ranges from examinations of urban living, as mass entertainment and the rise of manufacturing came to redefine daily life, to how Regionalist artists such as Thomas Hart Benton reflected the rapidly disappearing rural America. It also looks to the future, featuring early works by artists including Jackson Pollock that trace the abandonment of figuration as a precursor to the abstract expressionist style for which he is best known.