Painting, as well as other forms of art, serves to convey the author’s vision of the world. The choice of the plot is never accidental because painters want to share with their viewers the stories that agitate and captivate them. However, production is not the final step of the work. The further fate of the picture is at the viewers’ mercy, as they form their opinions and sometimes even find a new meaning in the creation. It may be interesting to analyze two paintings touching on the same topic but revealing the authors’ approaches and evoking different emotions.
Few works of the twentieth-century’s American art are as famous as American Gothic, painted by Grant Wood in 1930. Striving to celebrate the culture and values of midwestern farmers, Wood depicted his sister and his dentist as an ordinary family standing in front of a little white cottage. However, at first, the work was regarded as mockery because of the characters’ glum and austere faces. People of Iowa were outraged and did not want to identify themselves with the pair in the painting. It took some time for them to change their attitude to the artwork. When Great Depression started, American Gothic became a symbol of hardworking practical people, able to deal with their hardship. Later, as mass culture developed, the artwork provided a foundation for thousands of parodies showing political and social phenomena. This story proves that “image meanings are created in a complex relationship among producer, viewer, image or text, and social context” (Sturken and Cartwright 78). American Gothic has come a long way from total rejection to the establishment of a strong ideology of a social class.
Considering the history of the painting, the viewer is likely to engage in a negotiated reading. The artwork’s ambiguity makes it difficult to define the main idea or the attitude to the characters. In the beginning, the strictness of their facial expressions and geometrical shapes in the painting transmit the tenseness. The viewer’s gaze tries to look behind the characters’ backs to see the perspective, but the man blocks the way with his pitchfork. However, with time the viewer sees not aggression but self-defense and common sense. It seems that the author tried to show the close bond between people in rural America and their homes. After this kind of reasoning, the characters start to look like an ordinary family, maybe a bit tired of their routine, but accepting it as an essential part of their life. Thus, the impression changes drastically, making the viewer respect the characters and feel interpellated by the look of these decent and diligent people.
If Grant Wood succeeded in showing the labor side of the common people’s life, Pieter Bruegel tried to look at it from another angle. He found inspiration in showing the simple pleasures of peasants, and The Peasant Dance, painted in 1568, is a perfect example of it. Maybe this work did not gather such active feedback from the global community as American Gothic, but it also represents the social class ideology. Unlike the former, capturing the state of impeccable order and stability, the latter shows dynamics, exhilaration, and even mess. It may support stereotypes about peasants spending their leisure time drinking and making noise. However, the viewers should not jump to conclusions but, instead, engage in negotiated reading for better comprehension. The idea expressed in the painting may be that hardworking people know how to rejoice. Probably, The Peasant Dance can teach even a modern viewer how to appreciate life and find a balance between business and leisure time.
Although the painting depicts the reality remote from the current one, everything is made to immerse the viewer into it. Unlike other paintings by Bruegel, the viewer does not look down at the characters but is on the same level with them. The gaze moves freely from one part of the picture to another, allowing the viewer to feel like one of the characters. It is almost impossible for the viewer to stay indifferent when the picture is so inviting. According to Sturken and Catwright, “to be interpellated or touched as an individual viewer is a common and unavoidable aspect of encountering images” (55). Therefore, despite a colossal gap in time, despite different social, national, and cultural backgrounds, everyone looking at the painting connects to the cheerful and lighthearted mood.
Exploring paintworks is a complicated process, which involves deciphering the meaning implied by the author and finding new ones. Painters choose various ways to invite viewers and guide their gaze around the painting. American Gothic is a controversial representation of rural America, which gained both criticism and acclaim. With time, people started to see much more ideology there than at first. As for The Peasants Dance, it is also devoted to showing the life of a specific social class. In the beginning, it may seem a simple attempt to capture an episode of peasants’ life, but there can be found additional meaning like the philosophy of enjoying one’s free time. To conclude, both paintings provide the viewer with meaningful material to contemplate.
Work Cited
Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford University Press, 2009.