KTWU Sunflower Journeys 1608B - Thomas Hart Benton
Produced by Jim Kelly
Jessie Benton, Thomas Hart Benton's daughter: He drew trains. I think he started when he was about seven. There are some early, early drawings of Daddy's when he was a little boy. And they were fantastic trains, running very fast. He was fascinated with all kinds of trains. Then, when he was in his teens, he started making cartoons for the newspaper in Neosho and by the time he was eighteen or nineteen, he knew he wanted to be an artist and he went to France. His mother sent him to France to study art when he was in his early 20s. Narrator: While in Paris, Benton studied expressionism, impressionism or as he once said, "just about every ism' there is in art". But when he moved to New York City in 1911, Thomas Hart Benton turned his back on European influences and developed his own distinctive style. Randall Griffey, Assistant Curator Of American Art, Nelson Atkins Museum Of Art, Kansas City, Missouri: Benton's signature style relates a lot to the kind of incessant undulating of form, that you see in Benton's compositions consistently. Everything is in motion, all the forms are reacting and responding to one another. There's very little stasis or stability in a Benton composition. Jessie Benton: Like distortion for the sake of composition. Although, he never thought it was distorted. He actually saw that way. When I was a little girl growing up, for my birthday every year I could ask or anything and he would paint it for me. And this particular birthday I asked for some animals. I wanted all different kinds of animals to come to my birthday party. Well, I was very disappointed in the painting because it's a donkey, and a dog and a cat and a chicken, but they're all ugly and distorted and I wanted cute animals and it wasn't until many years later they I appreciated it. It's quite a painting actually, because they're all going in the same direction. Narrator: In 1919 Benton began work on his first mural, "American Historical Epic", which is now part of the American art collection at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. Randall Griffey: It was Benton's first attempt at mural painting and it was a mural project that he never really completed. He was aiming for upwards of fifty panels, but completed only about eighteen. Most of which we have here. Benton's interest in mural painting actually took hold in his youth when he was living in Washington D.C. and visiting the Library of Congress, where there were prominent and very beautiful murals from the turn of the century. But unlike those images which are filled with a lot of female allegories and female personifications of very high-minded ideals, Benton takes mural painting and creates art for the masses.
Steve Sitton , Site Administrator Thomas Hart Benton Home And Studio State Historic Site Kansas City, Missouri: Originally, regionalism was kind of a derogatory term. It meant Midwestern, it meant provincial. It meant old-fashioned, conservative. Tom was not doing the avant garde, cutting edge abstract expressionistic art. So he's most known for his farm scenes, his labor, working man sorts of things. He said he wanted to do common art for the common man. Benton left New York to take a position at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1935. That same year he was commissioned to paint the mural in the Missouri state capital. but as John Steuart curry found out in kansas, creating "public art" often exposes one to "public criticism". Steve Sitton: There was talk by some of the legislators, "we need to white-wash over this thing". People asked him, "isn't he proud of Missouri?". And Benton responded: "I don't know if proud of Missouri or not, but I'm interested in it." So he painted common life. There's a woman diapering a baby in that mural, but he doesn't have General Pershing who's from Missouri. He doesn't have his famous ancestor, Senator Thomas Hart Benton. He's got everyday folks. A guy plowing a field. A trapper, traders, things like that. Jessie Benton: That was one of the problems with Daddy when he was asked to do commissions. He would sometimes include things that were offensive to a lot of people. I mean, he painted Tom Pendergast and he painted politicians, not in a very good light. And there was some talk about that but there was no stopping him. Narrator: Tom Benton died in his studio in 1975, leaving behind a huge body of work that includes not only murals, but sculptures, sketches and easel paintings. and while Thomas Hart Benton is generally recognized as a great american artist, his "art for the masses", did not always appeal to the masses. Randall Griffey: Benton had during his lifetime, ardent supporters and he also had very vocal detractors. Benton was someone, especially during the 30s and 40s, when regionalism was so influential and so prominent, it was hard to be neutral about him. Jessie Benton: I think that for the same reason that I wanted my cute animals, it's the same thing. Sometimes Daddy's paintings put people off, because they are very bold that way. They're very insistent and different. They don't quite fit the form that you'd perhaps like them to take. But on the other hand, he is so unique and so full of life that I don't think he's going to be easily forgotten. And I think that's the most important thing for a painter, or an artist of any kind. Is that you know, he isn't forgotten. That his work and what he represented and what he said and what he believed in, isn't forgotten. That's got to be the best legacy of all.
This transcript is from KTWU's Sunflower Journeys 2003 season. A production of: |
