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Written by Will Fellows, Contributing writer
Apr 7, 2011
In Iowa last fall, Grant Wood biographer Tripp Evans, left, and partner Ed Cabral gripped their forks in front of the house that inspired Wood’s most famous painting. Evans discusses his biography April 21 at Milwaukee’s Boswell Books, 2559 N. Downer Ave., at 7 p.m. His appearance is co-sponsored by the Cream City Foundation’s Joseph R. Pabst LGBT Infrastructure Fund. – Photo: Molly Moser
In the 70 years since Grant Wood died, the celebrated Iowa artist has come to be seen, especially in his home state, as the artist in overalls – a simple, sexually neuter painter whose works celebrate the rural and small-town life of yesteryear.
But Tripp Evans makes it clear in his recently published biography that Grant Wood was neither simple nor sexless. Like most gay men of his era, Wood endured a daunting struggle against oppression, and his paintings reflect that.
When Evans hit the road last fall to promote “Grant Wood: A Life,” he arrived in Iowa for a 10-city book tour with some trepidation. Three days before his arrival, Iowa voters had unseated the state supreme court justices who had brought marriage equality to the state. Evans also learned that two of the towns on his itinerary had refused to sell his book in conjunction with his visit.
Nonetheless, Evans found that most Iowa audiences, including those in the towns where his book was banned, were thoughtfully receptive to his unvarnished account of Wood’s life, and respectful of the author, both as a writer and a gay man.
When Evan’s partner Ed Cabral told a 70-something docent at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa, that the couple was planning to have their picture taken in front of the famous “American Gothic” house, the woman leaned in and asked with a mischievous smile, “Which one of you boys holds the pitchfork?”
“It was our turn to be shocked,” Evans says with a grin.
