Created just five years apart, these works relate in time as well as subject. On the bottom, the painting American Gothic, by the Iowan Grant Wood (1892-1942), depicts farmers in 1930, before the Great Depression was fully under way. On the top, the photograph Rural Rehabilitation Client, by the Lithuanian born New Jerseyan Ben Shahn (1899-1969), depicts recipients of a federal aid program in Arkansas in 1935, at the Depression's low point. Closely examine the people in each image (clothes, postures, expressions) and their settings. What striking and not-so-striking similarities do you notice? What is the most obvious difference? What are some more subtle differences? What does the medium of each work (painting versus photography) contribute to the differences? How would you summarize the visions of rural folk conveyed by Wood and Shahn?
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There are many similarities and differences between these two pictures. To me, their expressions look almost identical. The only difference in this though, is that the husband and wife are switched in each picture. In the bottom picture, the house looks a lot fancier than the other people's house. Also, in the bottom picture, they look cleaner, not dirty and unkempt like the top couple. In a painting, the artist can make the lives of people look more perfect, while as in a photograph, it shows the ugly truth. I think these two artists wanted to capture these type of people to show the common population how bad things can get.
1 comment:
You have made very good observations here, Katie. If you were rewriting this paragraph for some reason, I think you could sharpen up the language -- words with more precision, fewer words to do the work. But the comparisons you made are apt.
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