James H. Maroney, Jr., art dealer and former head of American Paintings at Christie’s, took issue with my review of Nathan DiPietro, specifically, my comment that Wood was an “America First, bread-basket regionalist.” who might have been a “narrow man.”
Instead, wrote Maroney, Wood was only pretending to be narrow because he was gay and hiding it. Maroney’s essay here.
From his email:
Your views on his art and his politics are essentially shared by virtually everyone in the art world including his biographers and unfortunately they are entirely wrong. Wood was not an “America first Bread basket regionalist” whatever that is. He was a swinging, Herbert Hoover, prohibition hating lefty. The man you think he was was his public persona, which he put up for his survival and which was so successful, the real Grant Wood remains hidden to this day.
To repeat, my views of Wood’s work are entirely appreciative. The only reason anyone might care if Wood were wide in his personal views or narrow is the quality of his work, which, after reading Maroney’s essay, I’m not as certain as he contain so many clues to secrets of a personal nature.
Also, even if Maroney’s premise is sound, few would agree with his apparent contention that being a closet case implies the (hidden) existence of empathy for others.
Regina,
Having taught in Grant Wood’s studio at the University of Iowa and doing my MA on the impact of Wood, the WPA and the Federal Art Project, I can only tell you that he was a complicated man. He was no rube, he was extremely well read and well traveled. He made his choices carefully and executed them with strength. Was he gay? I have heard both sides of the question and still do not know for sure. How is that a factor to his oeuvre? It can inform it but it does not totally explain it. He was accused of being a fascist by fellow faculty member Janson who wrote the History of Art textbook and that is only one of the many canards he suffered. In the end he was a very famous and tortured man who died bitter at an art world that did not understand him