Friday, April 4, 2014

American Gothic At Iowa State Fair

A more life-size version of the same sculpture appeared locally

Actually, Seward Johnson's sculpture replicating the classic work will appear in Des Moines at the State Fair:
Visitors to the Iowa State Fair will be able to touch the attraction that's likely to be one of the biggest stops during the annual event.
No, you can't touch the butter cow or the big boar. But you will be able to touch and feel a 25-foot-tall replica of the figures from Grant Wood's "American Gothic."
The sculpture by Seward Johnson was completed in 2007 and has since traveled to several destinations. Its most recent stop was at Simpson College in Indianola.
Peter Cownie, executive director of the Iowa State Fair Blue Ribbon Foundation, has spearheaded efforts to bring the iconic pitchfork-bearing father and his daughter to the fairgrounds in Des Moines.
Cownie, who is also a state legislator from West Des Moines, said it was the prominent central Iowa businessman William (Bill) Knapp who was the impetus for lugging the work, which requires days of packing and assembly between stops, to the State Fairgrounds.
Cownie said Knapp had the idea "when this thing moves, this sculpture should come to the fairgrounds."
Knapp and Jim Cownie, a Des Moines entrepreneur and the father of Peter Cownie, paid the $30,000 to lease the replica for six months, Peter Cownie said.
"We had to kind of act fast to be able to get it to the fairgrounds because it was going to head out to the East Coast," Peter Cownie said.
Stacy Peterson, the collections and exhibitions manager at the Dubuque Museum of Art, which exhibited the Johnson statue from the fall of 2010 to summer of 2013, said the statue offers people a chance to better understand regionalist art works from the early 20th century.
25 feet tall?  Holy shit!  The version which came to Troy, pictured above, was only life-size.  It is a nice work, though.  But $30,000?  That's a pretty good chunk of change.  I'm sure folks will enjoy it, though, because that guy is mighty handsome, if I do say so myself.

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