“ Any luck finding out if Grant Wood was gay?”
Me, in an e-mail to another staff member. Remind me why anyone would want to do anything else for a living?
UPDATE: A reply from a former editor who apparently gives tours at the Grant Wood studio in Cedar Rapids.
I just found this so you may have gotten your answer already. This question has been asked over the years and as far as I know there has never been any proof either way. You certainly could ask Terry Pitts, but I doubt that you’ll get anything more specific. He might point out that Wood was married in 1935 to Sara Sherman Maxon, a divorcee who had adult children, then they were divorced in 1939. It depends on your source, but she was either four years or eight years older than he was. While married they lived in the house on E. Court Street in Iowa City. When I’ve done tours at 5 Turner Alley a few people have asked the question outright but I just tell them that I don’t know the answer. The people who might know the answer are all dead and have been for some time.
From what I’ve read in several books Grant Wood did have a difficult time while on staff at the University of Iowa, but it had more to do with the fact that he had no academic degrees, with his style of painting — called Regionalism — and with his teaching methods. When he joined the faculty the dean who hired him had been replaced by a man who favored abstract painting and considered Wood’s style of painting passe. Plus Wood apparently didn’t like to teach in large classes as was the style but instead wanted to work with just one or two students. And apparently all the other instructors had academic degrees. This really doesn’t answer the question and is probably more than you wanted to know.”
