James Baquet

    Like Edwin Hubble, painter Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) was born in Missouri. The two men were born in the same year, although Benton lived considerably longer than Hubble. However, he never became as well-known.

    Benton was considered a leader in an artistic movement called Regionalism, or American Scene painting. As the name implies, Regionalists created scenes of rural American life typical of a particular region (in Benton’s case, the Midwest) and in protest against the urbanization and industrialization of the country. It was in some ways nationalistic, and totally romantic in its focus on a way of life that was quickly passing away, if not already gone. Ironically, this “rustic” artist studied in Paris, lived in New York City for more than two decades of his life, and — because his father was a U.S. senator — spent much of his childhood in the nation’s capital, Washington D.C.

    He also studied at the Art Institute of Chicago (where famous paintings by another Regionalist, Grant Wood, hang today), before going on to study in Paris. He served in the U.S. Navy in World War I, where he was assigned to paint images of ships to record their camouflage.

    When he began producing his own work again, one of his primary fields was the creation of series of murals for public buildings. In light of Regionalism, many of these depicted the life of everyday people, especially in non-urban settings. Some of them were quite controversial, showing events and ideas that some people considered inappropriate for public art. Most of these works survive today, though many have been removed from the public settings for which they were first created.

    Unlike the image of the artistic wild man, Thomas Hart Benton was a family man. He was married for 53 years, until his death, and he and his wife raised a son and a daughter. He taught art at various schools in New York and the Midwest (Jackson Pollock was one of his students), but continued to work as an artist, and died while working in his studio at the age of 85.

    Vocabulary

    Which word above means:

    1. idealistic, thinking things are much better than they actually are

    2. rough, plain, simple

    3. making of a place into a city

    4. first, most important

    5. colors used to hide something

    6. greatly, to a large extent

    7. suggests something without saying it directly

    8. attention, concentration

    9. overly-proud of one’s country

    10. not suitable