Encore Episode: The Wonderful Wizard of Iowa

The Object

Kicking off Pride Month with a surprisingly epic encore episode about Grant Wood. In the 1930s, the Iowa artist is one of the most famous people in America. The mind behind "American Gothic"—the painting of the man, the woman, and the pitchfork. An artwork so celebrated and so curious it’s called the “modern Mona Lisa.” But as times change and jealousy spreads, Wood suddenly finds himself fighting for his life and livelihood, protecting a secret he hid almost everywhere but in his art.

You can see Wood’s quirky, nostalgic style in "The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover," in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of art.

Some see a tender self-portrait in "Sentimental Yearner," a drawing made for Sinclair Lewis’s "Main Street."