What do the paintings "Nighthawks" and "American Gothic" have to do with "Janette's Story"
How 1930s and 40s Art Deepens the Narrative of 'Janette's Story'
Gallery visitors gaze at American Gothic by Grant Wood. (Photo by Naomi Yaeger)
Recently, my husband and I visited the Chicago Institute of Art. I didn’t know this would happen before we went, but I was particularly drawn to the American artwork from the 1930s and 1940s because those are the decades my manuscript is set. Although my manuscript is already finished, these pieces might offer me some deeper insight into the history of that era.
Grant Wood's American Gothic, completed in 1930 and acquired by the Chicago Art Institute, captures a time when America was transitioning from a predominantly rural society to an urban one.
In my manuscript, tentatively titled "Janette's Story," readers will explore the joys and hardships Janette experienced living in a rural Midwestern town and visiting her grandparents' farm in South Dakota. While there was plenty of joy, there was also a great deal of physically hard labor and a lack of modern conveniences (like indoor toilets or kitchen sinks with running water, or electric refrigerators)
Some think American Gothic symbolizes an homage to Midwestern rural values, which are certainly displayed in "Janette's Story." Yet others think Wood painted it to criticize the rigidity and conservatism of rural America.
Last night and this morning, I watched every YouTube video on this painting I could find. The comments are equally divided on its meaning, with one person saying that as an African American child, this painting scared him. Other people said they loved the painting.
My husband watched a YouTube video with me before church. Before the narrator could say it, he spontaneously said, "It's a Meme!" Yes, it was! Almost as soon as the painting was finished and hung in the Chicago Art Institute, people made parodies.
A screenshot of my internet search of Memes of American Gothic.
Naomi studies Thanksgiving by Doris Lee, 1935. (Photo by Terry Larson)
Another 1930s painting I enjoyed was Thanksgiving by Doris Lee. It's a bustling scene of women preparing for a Thanksgiving feast. It's fun to see all the different activities the women are engaged in. But it wouldn't have been something Janette would have experienced because her nuclear family usually spent Thanksgiving in their little town of Avoca and not with extended relatives. It did cause me to wonder if her cousins who lived near each other experienced this type of Thanksgiving with aunts running around in a hot kitchen and lots of relatives around a table. My childhood also was spent in areas too far to travel to gather with relatives easily, so I didn't spend my Thanksgivings with extended family, something I share in common with her.
How do you view Thanksgiving? I've always viewed it as a time to have a special meal, think about what I'm thankful for and celebrate with friends or immediate family, but, for me, it has never been a time with extended family.
1940s
Naomi looks at Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. (Photo by Terry Larson)
One of my favorite paintings is Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. The Chicago Institute of Art acquired this painting in January 1942. It symbolizes some of the tension Americans may have felt prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
My Man is a painting I never noticed until this past visit. (Photo by Naomi Yaeger)
A painting I discovered on my April visit is My Man by Japanese-born artist Yasuo Kuniyoshi. It depicts a common sight during World War II: a woman embracing a sailor. I had never noticed this painting before, but now, I absolutely love it. I'm particularly drawn to the way the couple is embraced and the sense of motion in the composition. And even though there is not much detail in the faces, it also doesn't take long to notice that the woman is Asian and the man has blonde hair.
Perhaps with age, I see this painting differently than I would as a young woman. I lived in Seattle for a while and met Japanese Americans my age whose parents and grandparents were sent to internment camps. I also have a friend in Minnesota whose Japanese American father worked in chick hatcheries in southern Minnesota during the 1940s. My mother didn't tell me much about the treatment of Japanese Americans during the 1940s. I don't think she knew anything about it as a child. One might be tempted to believe there were no Japanese Americans in Minnesota then, but my friend's experiences tell a different story.
During that era, posters, movies, and newsreels instilled a fear of the Japanese in my mother and others of her generation. When she visited me in Seattle, we watched a Japanese-flagged ship enter the harbor, and her eyes filled with tears. "It's tough for me to see that flag," she said. "They taught us to just hate the Japanese."
(I realize that a Japanese American citizen is different from a Japanese national, but many people in the 1940s did not make that distinction.)
These are the four paintings created during my mother's childhood that I took particular notice of during our visit to the Chicago Art Institute in April.
Are all four pieces of art familiar to you? Did you learn anything new about American Culture from these paintings? Let me know in the comments. Or send me an email.
Three of the four I had been familiar with but the last one I did not know about. Interesting how these art pieces connect with Janette's Story.