Self Portrait, by Thomas Hart Benton Thomas Hart Benton, an American artist (1889-1975), was only 5’3” but had a cantankerous, larger-than-life personality. He came across as a plain-talking, small-town roughneck, but in reality he was educated in Chicago and Paris, and came from a prominent Missouri family. Early in his career Benton lived in New York City, experimenting with abstract compositions and following the latest art world trends. But they didn't take. So he turned with a vengeance to a representational style, and antagonized artists and critics with his hot-tempered heckling. When he finally got fed up with the New York art establishment, Benton moved back to the Midwest. There he joined a Regionalist art movement that painted everyday people in a distinctly American landscape.
Recently I had the pleasure to watch Thomas Hart Benton, a 1988 documentary by Ken Burns. This fascinating introduction to the artist’s complicated and dynamic personality inspired me to pay a visit to the Benton mural, America Today, now residing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The mural, a series of ten panels originally commissioned by the New School for Social Research in 1930, was sold to AXA Equities in 1984, and then given to the Met in 2012. You can watch a video about the Met’s acquisition here.
Recently I had the pleasure to watch Thomas Hart Benton, a 1988 documentary by Ken Burns. This fascinating introduction to the artist’s complicated and dynamic personality inspired me to pay a visit to the Benton mural, America Today, now residing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The mural, a series of ten panels originally commissioned by the New School for Social Research in 1930, was sold to AXA Equities in 1984, and then given to the Met in 2012. You can watch a video about the Met’s acquisition here.
