Grant Wood (1892-1942)
Shriner's Quartet 1939
lithograph, 7 15/16 x 11, signed; ed. 250
Associated American Artists
UAM 1992.171

Grant Wood's Shriners is the classic image of fraternal orders, the pseudo-secret societies for middle-class men that offered an alternative to saloons. Wood deliberately undermines their seriousness however, as he catches the Shriners' musical performance with their open-mouthed faces oddly lit and their fezzes making silly shadows against the Great Pyramids...in Iowa! Most other artists took male-bonding much more seriously.