Grant Wood: 1891-1942

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Sources that discuss the possible homosexuality of the artist Grant Wood, or the homoeroticism of some of his art work.

Bibliography

Biel, Steven. American Gothic: A Life of America's Most Famous Painting. NY: Norton, 2006?

[Biel brings up Robert Hughes's claim that "Wood was a timid and deeply closeted homosexual" and the painting "American Gothic" is "an exercise in sly camp, the expression of a gay sensibility so cautious that it can hardly bring itself to mock its objects openly." Biel rejects this reading on the grounds that Hughes is simply unable to offer any evidence for his claims.]

Hughes, Robert. American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1997), p. 439. [First published reference to Wood as homosexual?]

Maroney, Jr., James H. (Leicester, VT). Hiding in Plain Sight: Decoding the Homoerotic and Misogynistic Imagery of Grant Wood. Accessed September 7, 2009 at: http://www.sover.net/~jmaroney/Art/Grant_Wood/Hiding_in_Plain_Sight_full.pdf

Seery, John Evan. "Grant Wood's Political Gothic." Theory & Event, Volume 2, Issue 1, 1998.

Weinberg, Jonathan. Male Desire: The Homoerotic in American Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2004). "Sultry Night" as Wood’s only homoerotic painting. Maroney, n. 21, p. 11

Chronology

1924: While studying at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris Wood painted his first male nude, "Spotted Man." "Aside from the curious way in which the man holds his hand behind his back, there is nothing particularly homoerotic about the picture unless, in the choice of his title coinciding with an awareness of his homosexuality, Wood actually meant ‘marked’ man. He kept the picture until his death." Maroney, n. 21, p. 11.

1937: "Sultry Night," the only appearance in Wood's work of a full-frontal, male nude. Maroney, n. 21, p. 11.