jervis on how state -- on how statements think. politics here on april 4. mark that on your calendar. that is only monday. on a thursday, let's give a round of a clause -- round of applause. thank you for joining us. i invite you to continue the conversation over a glass of wine next-door. right outside actually care thank you. outside actually. thank you. announcer: american history tv is on c-span3 every weekend, and all of our programs are archived on our website at c-span.org/history. you can watch lectures and college classrooms, tours of historic sites, archival films, nancy our schedule of upcoming programs at c-span.org/history.

our c-span cities tour takes american history tv on the road to feature the history of cities across america. here is a recent program. this is the grant wood studio where american gothic was painted. it is the piece that everybody knows. a lot of times, people will not know the artist with the title, but it is an iconic piece. it is probably the most iconic piece of american art. he was born outside of an mo set, iowa. he moved to cedar rapids when he was 10 after the death of his father. he lived here until he moved to iowa city in 1935. which is just 30 miles away. he was artistic from a young age. we have early sketches dating from 1906, possibly 1904. always really artistic.

which may have been difficult for him growing up. his father was a quaker. he grew up in a relatively strict household. but he was always really creative. he went off to europe. he went to europe four times during the 1920's to study because that is what artists did. your artistic education was not really complete until you went to europe. which may have been difficult for him growing up. his father was a quaker. he grew up in a relatively strict household. for the early years in his career, he was painting in an american impressionist style. he was using a of flus, expressionist brushwork. he could paint very quickly. during the mature phase of his career, he slowed down. he developed this hard edged more linear style. that coincided with him coming back to his last trip to europe and took -- that he took in 1928 and realizing that the midwest was just as worthy of midwest artistic consideration as europe. he wanted to paint what he knew. he wanted to paint the people and landscapes that surrounded him. this studio allowed him to be a professional painter at a time where it would've been rare for someone in eastern iowa to have

that as their profession and not just a hobby. the mansion next to the studio belonged to john b turner who wanted to turn into a mortuary. he originally hired grant wood to help with the transition. to offer him the space the carriage house. , he offered to allow him to move into the carriage house as a studio space and later as a resident. -- residence. grant would later realized he could make this into a space where he could live year-round. turner was not charging him any rent. that allowed him to leave his job at the school district, he was teaching, and our teacher. he moved in here full-time and worked as an artist. that allowed him to become a professional artist at an age where that would've been difficult for him. this would have been the bedroom. there were mattresses under both of these alcoves with curtains you could pull aside and bring them out at night. this space right here functioned as a stage. grant wood hosted theatricals a

lot. he is known as the predecessor of cedar rapids. this would have been the stage. the audience would be sitting back in the larger living area. he was also really handy. he pushed this part of the carriage house out and created another source of light for himself. he also created this space as a place to put his paintings. you can stack a bunch of canvases and boards and push it back into the wall. it is out of sight and out of mind. you are not tripping over your art supplies all the time. here are some of the other paintings he did while working in the studio. this is woman with plans. a portrait of his mother from 1929. as you can see, she is holding her snake plants. he was really inspired by northern renaissance painters he saw in germany. it was typical in the northern renaissance to paint a portrait of someone holding an attribute of their personality.

she has her plant. daughters of the american revolution is another fantastic one. this is a painting i really like because i think it shows his witty personality. when he was creating this large stained glass window for the veterans memorial, the building in cedar rapids, he caught some flack from people because there was not a stained glass placed in the u.s. that could work on such a large scale. he went to germany to create this window. he caught some flack because it was a war memorial window. we had just finished world war i with germany. people thought that was not patriotic. he painted this portrait of three daughters of the revolution. they are standing in front of the painting of washington crossing the delaware. lloyds i was a german artist painting these scenes. pointing out the hypocrisy of these primitive improper looking daughters of the revolution. the midnight ride of paul revere is another one of his pieces. he looks to america's past and

the fables that created our national consciousness. in a very dollar like, tiny little rocking horse riding towards the town. like.ks very dollhouse the ride of paul revere utilizes his sense of landscape and there a stylized lollipop trees. the fantasy like cliffs in the background. it is fun to see those elements come together. this is his most iconic painting, american gothic. he painted in 1930. in that same year, he entered it in competition for the art institute of chicago where it won a bronze medal. the museum bought it for $300. this is one of the most iconic pieces of american art. he used as models his dentist and his younger sister as r. she is alternatively described as being the farmer's wife. she thought she was too young to be the wife.

she preferred the daughter. the architecture we see in the background is an actual building that still exists. he is referring to when he is as gothic is the appointed window. this is something that is typical of european gothic architecture he would have seen a lot of. because he was in europe and fort -- in europe four times. this struck him as being interesting that this unassuming white clapboard iowa farmhouse would utilize the delicate beautiful tracery, typical of european gothic. and that it would be transplanted to the midwest in such a way. he fell in love with this building. he made a quick oil sketch of it. he knew he wanted to utilize it in painting. that came out in american gothic. the gothic in europe, it is mostly used for cathedrals and associated with religion and the sacred. it is interesting to see it juxtaposed with this midwestern couple. in the background, you can see a

tall plant. that is another thing he would used in his paintings. specifically the portrait of his mother. this plant is alternatively known as mother-in-law's tongue or snake plant. it is very hearty. we have takeoffs from the original plant and our offices. they are impossible to kill. it is something he used in a lot of his paintings. also this broach his sister is wearing, reused a lot of his props. it was something that was his mother's and you can see her wearing and another painting. it is really striking on nan. the apron is very typical of iowa farm wives -- it is -- overalls were his trademark. he dressed himself in them constantly and painted in them. it is interesting he could ease

-- use them here. they were a midwestern marker for sure. american gothic is one of those once-in-a-lifetime paintings. his entire at collection comey you can see the predecessors and what came after it fits him very naturally. it is not an outlier in his career. it came about just through -- he did a lot of portraits of people in cedar rapids. he was interested in midwestern architecture. and how people in the midwest lived. it fits perfectly into the narrative he was building. american gothic, it is one of those once-in-a-lifetime things. it was in the right place at the right time. it was in the show of the art institute of chicago. it was reproduced in the newspaper. people really had a response to it and fell in love with it. they were interested in the story and who the models were. they were interested in what it said about the midwest. all of america got really into it. it became this iconic piece. people had a lot of thoughts about it.

whether it was these dour miss what -- dour midwesterners were puritanical or these good frontier foundational values ever going to keep america together during this trying time. oddly, for -- for two people who do not look very emotional, it is a piece that engenders a lot of emotion. his career skyrocketed after american gothic. it was the iconic piece, which is why we are still talking about him today. american gothic changed the trajectory of his career. he started getting bigger commissions. he took a job at the university of iowa in iowa city. he worked for the wpa during the depression. the work progress the administration. he was super busy. he traveled a lot. he became the face of american scene painting or regionalism. he became the face of that art movement. he traveled the country and gave a lot of talks. he was busy putting forth the idea that the midwest was a viable place to create art.

he started an artist colony in stone city for a couple of summers. he wanted to encourage artists to paint what they knew and encourage them. you do not have to go to the east coast. you do not have to go to europe to paint worthwhile things. you can do it in your own backyard using what you know. the way both iowans thought about their state and the way outsiders thought about iowa changed. he is painting largely during the great depression. you do not see any of that in his paintings. everyone is healthy. everyone is out working the land. the land is very for kind. there is no dust bowl. there is no drought. there is no flood. all of the corn is coming up perfectly. the houses are neat and beautiful. he was operating with some nostalgia for an iowa that did not exist. people from iowa had mixed reactions to things like american gothic. they kind of thought he was

making fun of them or calling them stodgy or puritanical. i think he shaped what people who are not from iowa thought of the state. even today, people come from not iowa and they have this idea of the rolling hills and the farmlands and the windmills and the hearty iowa stock people. a lot of that comes from grant wood. he created a myth of iowa that exists to this day. he died in 1942 of pancreatic cancer. it came on really quickly. he started feeling bad in the middle of 1941. he took some trips. went a place during the summer. he came back and was diagnosed and passed away in 1942. he was very young when he died. he could have had an entire rest of his career ahead of him. 20 or 30 years of working. he died before his time, which is said. -- sad. he is still a big part of the arts community in iowa. he is the best-known iowa artist of any kind i can think of.

he is most important as a symbol. for current iowa artists. he is a reminder that iowa is viable as an artistic subject. that our landscape and people are worthwhile. that painting them and spending your life recording what happens in iowa is a worthwhile thing to do. announcer: you can watch this and other programs on the history of communities across the country at c-span.org citiestort. this is american history tv only on c-span3. announcer: next on the presidency, james baker remembers his longtime friend, george h.w. bush. friendshipout their and a notable evidence of the first bush administration including the end of the cold war and the goal for. -- gulf war. he looks back to the campaign that ended with george bush as ronald reagan's vice president

of choice. mr. baker served as president bush's secretary of state and white house chief of staff. former president george w. bush introduces the program which was hosted by his presidential center in dallas. this is almost 40 minutes. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the chief of the george w. bush presidential center, kent hirsch. [applause] kent: thank you so much. welcome to the bush center. it is the only place where the president outranks the ceo. and it is an honor for me to serve in this capacity and welcome you all here tonight to be engaged at the bush center series presented by highland capital. it is an honor that we get tonight to celebrate the life of the 41st president of the united states. and that is something that is unique to this place. and i'm excited you are here to share in the experience. i want to thank highland