Grant Wood’s famous representation of American farm life is one of those works of art so pervasive that it’s become a pop icon. But what is it about the stoic visages of that famous Iowa farm couple that has so captivated a nation that is increasingly uninterested in such unglamorous items as farms or the Midwest? The answer is complicated, stemming as it does from the painting’s origins, when no one from jaded New York critics to the very Iowa farmers represented in the work could decide for sure whether the artist was making fun of his subjects, or venerating them.