For over a century, movies have captured our imaginations, immersing us in the narratives of distant wars, the wild west, and political intrigue. And so it is with the works of Thomas Hart Benton. Inspired by Hollywood cinema and human nature, this quintessentially American artist applied the techniques of early moviemaking to depict compelling stories in each of his vibrant, larger-than-life paintings.
Born in Neosho, Missouri to an influential political family, Benton was groomed from an early age to continue his family’s legacy. At 16, his father sent him to the Western Military Academy with the intent of grooming him towards this end, but Benton was more inclined to pursue an interest in art. With the support of his mother, he enrolled in The School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 1907. This was soon followed by a stint at the Académe Julian in Paris, where he met and was inspired by other North American artists such as Diego Rivera and Stanton Macdonald-Wright.
Moving back to the United States in 1912, Benton further developed his talent doing portraits and production work, including time as a set painter in New Jersey's budding, pre-Hollywood film-industry. His combined experiences between Paris and the cinema had a lasting impact on Benton's artistic style, which combined old European mastery with Hollywood’s larger-than-life, cinematic vibrance. His paintings captured epic narratives, with the illusion of three-dimensional space and a sense of motion and theatrical lighting. When crafting his paintings, Benton even adopted several movie-making techniques, including the use of clay models to study shadows, and the use of storyboards to plan his murals.
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In the early 1920s, Benton moved to New York and declared himself an “enemy of modernism,” favoring naturalistic and representative work. Relatively unknown to this point, he captured national attention when he won a commission to paint murals of Indiana life for the 1933 Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago. He focused his cinematic style on everyday people and their activities—not all of it positive. Depictions of Ku Klux Klan members in full regalia ruffled more than a few feathers, and set the course for a controversial career in which he held fast to a desire to paint life as it was, and not simply as we might wish it to be.
American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood, sponsored by Bank of America, features approximately 100 of Benton's striking works, and will be on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum from June 10th through September 5th, 2016. Organized by the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in collaboration with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (NAMA) and the Amon Carter Museum of America, Fort Worth, Texas (ACMAA), it is the first major exhibition on Thomas Hart Benton in more than 25 years. To learn more, visit www.mam.org/american-epics
