Thomas Hart Benton
Bio and Self-Portrait
Click on the images below to view a larger image.
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The
Social History of Missouri: "Frankie and Johnny," 1936 Mural: the House Lounge of the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City. |
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Lonesome Road 1938, lithograph 9 3/4 by 12 1/2 in. |
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Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) Threshing 1941, lithograph 9 1/4 by 13 13/16 in. |
| Benton, Thomas Hart, regionalist American painter, known for his vigorous,
colorful murals of the 1930s, mostly of rollicking scenes from the rural past of the
American South and Midwest. Benton was born in Neosho, Missouri. He studied at the Art
Institute of Chicago and then spent three years in Paris. Living in New York City after
1912, Benton turned away from modernism and gradually developed a rugged naturalism that
affirmed traditional rural values. By the 1930s he was riding a tide of popular acclaim.
Benton returned to Missouri, taught at the Kansas City Art Institute, and continued to
paint both panels and murals. His mural in the state capitol in Jefferson City (1935)
stirred protests because of its open portrayals of some of the seamier facets of
Missouri's past. Benton's most famous student was Jackson Pollock, who studied with Benton
at the Art Students League in New York City from 1929 to 1931. Source:http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?ti=01874000 |
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