Iconic painting "American Gothic" to be displayed at Royal Academy in London

LONDON, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- An iconic painting reflecting life in America after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 will be one of the highlights of the Royal Academy of Arts' 2017 program, it was announced Thursday.

Grant Wood's painting, American Gothic, has never before been seen outside of the United States, but will go on show in London as part of the Royal Academy's exhibition, America After the Fall: Painting in the 1930s.

The academy will stage the exhibition from Feb. 25 until June 4.

A spokesman for the Royal Academy said Thursday: "Following the devastating impact of the Great Depression, brought about by the Wall Street Crash, America entered the 1930s in flux... During this period, artists sought to capture those changes as mass urbanisation, industrialisation, and immigration propelled the country towards becoming, in the words of James Truslow Adams, 'the land of opportunity'."

The 45 iconic works from the period to be showcased includes the farmland of the mid-West as well as representations of life in the city, drawn from collections across the United States, many of which have rarely been seen together.

"Works by Thomas Hart Benton, Jackson Pollock, Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keefe and Philip Guston will feature alongside Grant Wood's American Gothic," the spokesman said.