CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - Many people know this famous painting: American Gothic. You might know about the Iowa home that inspired it... and the Iowan who painted it. But you almost didn’t.

“His life here caused him to be written out of art history, and that’s why people know American Gothic but don’t know the artist behind it,” said Maura Pilcher, Grant Wood Art Colony Executive Director.

Grant Wood was born in Anamosa in 1891.

After his father died, his mother moved him and his sister to Cedar Rapids when Wood was 10 years old.

“He’s recognized as a really accomplished and talented artist even in high school,” said Sean Ulmer, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art Executive Director.

After high school, Wood bounces around Minneapolis and Chicago before moving back to Cedar Rapids, where he r

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