![]() ![]() He called them “psychological landscapes,” which tended to make you feel you were in a specific place.Ĭedar Rapids Museum of Art Executive Director Terry Pitts was one of the people Dahlquist consulted before proposing the Grant Wood art theme for the rest area. Van Allen said Wood's landscapes were “more like memories than perception,” with lollipop-shaped trees and other simplified elements. “He's famous largely because he was so influential,” Van Allen said. Wood emerged during the peak popularity of abstract expressionism, but became a key figure in the regionalist movement that realistically depicted people and scenes of Middle America that the artists knew intimately. Van Allen said the pop culture adaptations of “American Gothic” have little to do with Grant Wood's place in the history of art. “Rest stops tend to be in the middle of a landscape, so there's some appropriateness there.” Wood “did a lot of landscapes, a lot of Iowa landscapes,” Van Allen said. “Artists tend to be more interesting characters than, say, CEOs.” Photographer David Van Allen, professor emeritus of art at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, didn't hesitate long when asked what he thought of Dahlquist's idea. “I thought it was wonderful that we could pay homage to art, and he's arguably the best-known Iowa artist.” “Very few people across the United States ever knew Grant Wood came from Iowa, or how important he was to the regionalist art movement, or that this is the area where he painted American Gothic,” Dahlquist said. He saw an opportunity to fuse art and economic development by featuring Wood's work. The entire art installation is called “The View from Our Window: Grant Wood in Iowa.” The inspiration came from public artist David Dahlquist.ĭahlquist, creative director at RDG Dahlquist Design Studio in Des Moines, has developed art concepts and designs for many Iowa rest areas. It is reproduced at one of the rest area's entrances. Wood's painting “Arbor Day,” showing a rural one-room schoolhouse, is represented on Iowa's state quarter. “American Gothic” is echoed in the stained glass gothic windows outside the rest area building, and in images of the painting's male and female characters inside the rest area, which provide a visual clue to distinguish the men's and women's restroom. There’s even a tiny pencil outside to go with the fountain pen.You will begin to receive our Daily News updates. Add your contacts. One visitor reported that, outside, there are picnic shelters with metal plates displaying quotes from famous writers and a Times Square-like ticker also showing quotes. According to the state Department of Transportation, “names of many prominent writers and images depicting the history of writing instruments appear on glazed blocks” scattered through the interior. ![]() ![]() Inside, the facility (which was completed in spring of 2010) is a virtual shrine to writing and pens. The first thing you’ll see when you approach the entrance to the rest stop building is a giant fountain pen, with a river of ink flowing from it’s its tip across the ground. The school houses one of the best creative writing programs in the world – the first in the US – and has produced more than a dozen Pulitzer Prize winners. It’s located in Johnson County, Iowa, which is also where you will find the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
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