Grant Wood, New Road, 1939
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
In the Nation's Capital
HUMAN AFFAIRS
Dialogues on events
that shape our world
MEMORY AND
IDENTITYExploring our
heritage
Testing our tradition
BEAUTY WILL SAVE
THE WORLD
Discovering the world
of arts: performances
and presentations
MEETINGS AT
THE CROSSROADS
Face to face with...
BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD

GRANT WOOD'S STUDIO:
BIRTHPLACE OF
AMERICAN GOTHIC

Exhibition tour at the Renwick Gallery
with Jane Milosch, Curator
















Curator and editor of the book, Grant Wood’s Studio: Birthplace
of American Gothic, Jane Milosch shared her insight into the
artist’s life and works.

Saturday, June 3, 2006
Renwick Gallery
Smithsonian American Art Museum

(READ THE REVIEW ON
THE WASHINGTON POST)
A place where roads meet. A time of change.
"If thou among the
eternal
Ideas art numbered,
which the eternal
mind
Deigns not should
e'er be clothed in
fleshly form,
And in frail human
frames
Learn with what ills
our mortal life doth
swarm;
Or if some other
earth be mine of
those
Innumerable worlds
wherewith heav'n
flames,
And, brighter than
the Sun, the nearest
star
Through kinder
atmosphere above
thee glows:
From here, where
days are brief and
skies soon darken,
To this, an unknown
lover's hymn, oh
hearken"

Giacomo Leopardi
"To my lady"
BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD
Discovering the world of arts:
performances and presentations
PHOTO GALLERY
GO TO THE PHOTO GALLERY
FROM THE OPENING REMARKS:

St. Paul’s words: “Test everything; retain what is
good” express perfectly our mission statement.
Our actual mission is education.  These public
events seek to reach out to anyone who wishes
to share, grow, and learn. We are going forward
in exploration of people, events, and our
heritage, paying particular attention to beauty in
the world of the arts, which often  expresses
deep dimensions of our humanity .

C.S. Lewis once said: “All my life has been the
search for the place where all that beauty came
from.” This is why we have come here.

This presentation, like all the others, take place
within a context of friendship. It is a group of
friends who have a desire to bring together
others who share their curiosity and who want
to broaden and enrich this “dialogue” on reality.
Clearly, our friendship with Jane has inspired
renewed interest in American visual arts and
led to the idea of planning this event. If it is the
first time that you participate at one of our
events, I’d like to take this opportunity to invite
you to pick up a brochure and sign the guest
book downstairs so you can be contacted for
future events.  

We want to explore Grant Wood’s painting and
decorative style, which reveal a profound
interest in the every day details of life—whether
he painstakingly replicated the pattern on a
calico apron or lace curtain or fashioned a
chandelier out of metal corn cobs. He could
even be called a “down-to-earth” man, deeply
appreciative of the workers of the land, and of
the land itself, in all of the grand expansiveness
characteristic of the Mid-West, where he was
from. You’ll see that he wasn’t afraid to mix high
and low art forms, as when he plastered his
overalls to cupboard doors for a rustic effect
(leaving a pocket intact for his bottle opener!), or
when he grooved and painted a wood floor to
give his studio a sophisticated tiled effect. You
can’t miss his sense of humor in these and
other works, exposing his stance of surprise
and positivity toward the world around him. As
Grant Wood himself said, “There can be
adventures in the commonplace.”