Grantwoods American Gothic

This Grantwood painting is one of the most parodied images in the world and is one of few paintings that has reached cultural icon status. Grantwood found his inspiration for this painting frrom a gothic revival house with a distictive upper window. The farmer and his spinster daughter- often mistaken for as husband and wife- have been replaced by various well known couples. The first prominent parody of the painting was American Gothic (1942) by Gordon Parks which features a black woman It has gone on to be parodied on postcards, stamps, advertisements, magazine covers and television shows.

American Gothic (1942) by Gordon Parks

Alot of the parodies on the painting are fun and silly, such as the one with Kermit the Frog Miss Piggy. Others are as simple as changing the objects that they are holding. Paris hilton and Nicole Ritchie used it to advertise there show 'The Simple Life'. It was also used for the opening credits for Desperate Housewives, which uses iconic art work throughout time to reflect how the role of women has changed:

I have also found a short Fashion Film from Studio Jo Meesters called Die Ordnung which reflects the colonial style of the painting:

Full length video: http://vimeo.com/11104739

This particular take on the original, with the animals replacing the humans, reminded me of artwork I had seen from graphic designer Alex Castro:

His 'Animal Portraits' show amazing photoshop skills as the animal-human hybrids look almost real! This is really good inspiration for our shoot as it shows just how extreme we can be with our final edits and how different we can make an original piece look. The protrait style of the images give it a really dark edge and adds to the unnaturalness of the images. I particularly like the image of the deer in the teeshirt as it has a modern twist on the old fashion style of a portrait.

by Kate Murray.