In the 1930s the painters of the Regionalist art movement responded to the hardships of the Great Depression by glorifying rural America’s people, traditions and values. Although the style is most famously embodied by long-faced Ma and pitchfork-holding Pa in Grant Wood’s American Gothic, Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) rivaled Wood as a central figure of Regionalism.
“American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood” (June 10-Sept. 5) is the first major exhibition of Benton’s work in more than 25 years. The exhibit of nearly 100 works finds the artist channeling the grandeur of early Hollywood and retooling cinematic techniques in mural-like paintings.
Hollywood’s influence on Benton had nothing to do with glitz, glamor, sex and celebrity. It was the storytelling techniques that Benton—after returning from his art studies at the Académie Julien in Paris—absorbed while working on silent film sets between 1913 and 1917. By combining these techniques with his classical arts education, Benton became a master of mise-en-scène—organizing his paintings with enough purposiveness and precision to capture in a single image what films required 24 frames per second to convey.
Central to the exhibit, Benton’s painting Hollywood (1937-1938) epitomizes his narrative prowess. Life magazine had commissioned the artist to paint a “movie mural” that would disclose the world behind the scenes. The result synthesizes different moments of the production process and revolves around a scantily clad blonde goddess wielding a scepter and staring icily into the distance. A gentleman kneels as if proposing before her. Then the dynamism of Benton’s composition catches the eye and swirls it around the perimeter of the canvas where production assistants toil with lights and fuss over hair and set false cities ablaze.
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If Benton’s pictures tell stories, “story” is being used in a broad sense. But so much information is masterfully arranged on the canvasses that the viewer can’t help but draw connections and speculate about details.
MAM is decking out the exhibition with programs, events and co-exhibitions that will dig deeper into different themes. Classic films including A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and The Grapes of Wrath (1940) will be screened on Friday evenings in July. “American Seen! Regionalism from the American Art Collection” will be displayed in the Godfrey American Art Wing concurrently with the Benton show. Despite the name’s overtones of provinciality, Regionalism is seen here to be a distinctly modern style that addressed contemporary issues and found inspiration in international influences.
For more information, visit mam.org.
