A new exhibit for the American Gothic House Center opened Friday.
ELDON, IOWA -- At the American Gothic House Center, the museum in Eldon, a new exhibit detailing the rich history of Grant Wood's life is now on display.
Wood painted the iconic masterpiece "American Gothic" in 1930 after being inspired by the second floor window of the farmhouse in Eldon.
KTVO spoke with Jessica Strom, the Administrator for the American Gothic House Center who said that the goal is to have something new and different every year in the museum.
"We realize that most of our visitors are one-time, maybe annual, kind of visitors as they travel through the area. But there are still people who bring their company, every time they have company, up here and we want them to have something new to look at, at least periodically," Strom said.
She discussed Grant Wood's life, stating that he spent the first half of his life on a farm in Anamosa, Iowa.
"You know that farm experience is certainly an important part of him and his work, because when you look at his later work through the 1930s you see these farmscapes, and farmers, and their wives/family in these paintings quite a bit," Strom said.
A reception was held at the American Gothic House Center on Friday evening in honor of the new Grant Wood exhibit. On hand at the event was Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret, who has been an Iowa photographer since 1945 and has authored several books about Grant Wood's life.