Art Analysis: American Gothic By Grant Wood

In the painting “American Gothic”, Grant Wood uses lines, shapes, textures, colors, and objects to describe his painting. For example, he uses vertical lines on the little american gothic house in the background, and hard-edged lines on the people and their clothing. He also uses shapes such as squares, rectangles, and triangles in the house along with circles to make the trees in the background. As for texture he uses smooth texture because there are no choppy lines or rough surfaces. The painting has nice closed ended lines and paint strokes. Another aspect in the painting in the use of color. He choose to use neutral colors such as beige, brown, black, tan, and red. The objects he choose to add into the painting include a house, barn, pitch fork, trees, and accessories on the people such as glasses and overalls.

By this I mean that if you where to fold the painting in half vertical, horizontally, or diagonally the sides would never match. The reason it's still balanced is because there are two people on each side of the painting, and two buildings on each side in the back. Another reason it’s balanced is because the darkest area of the painting is in the front which is the farmer's clothing and faces, and the lightest part of the painting is in the back which is the sky and house. These two main focal points complement each other creating a sense of balance throughout. The vantage point Grant wood choose is 3D. The trees and the house give the painting a sense of depth. Grant also uses the repetition of triangles and straight lines in the house and barn to resemble the American Gothic style