Assignment- Article Notes

 09/14/14

“Thomas Hart Benton: Working with Composition”

 

Ø Father was a member of the House of Representatives

Ø Quote- “I don’t think an artist can help but express himself. Anything he does automatically expresses his inner character and his mind” (1).

Ø Made strong political statements through his art

Ø Came of age when factory-made goods & machinery revolutionized the way people lived/worked

Ø Large casualties from WWI(1914-1918) changed the way people looked at life itself

Ø Stock market crash-1929

Ø Benton’s work started controversy with art & politics

Ø The Artists’ Show- Used smooth, organic shapes in the foreground; contrasts with the geometric/ angular shapes in the background

Ø Characteristics of his artwork include: simplified, exaggerated shapes, overlapping forms, rhythmic compositions, and bright colors (uplifting to help create positivity for Americans fighting the Great Depression)

Ø Artwork included all races working in harmony

Ø Captured the lives of farmers, construction workers, housewives, office workers, etc….

Ø Artistic style-emphasis on social reform and local culture known as Regionalism

Ø Critics sought his work as unrealistic of its industrial life portrayal

 

Ø 1908-left to study art in Paris “the center of the art world”

Ø Settled in New York and experimented with different artistic styles

Ø Designed sets for early motion pictures

Ø Worked with Realism on battleships

Ø Began working on portraying American history through multi-paneled murals. He planned 75 but completed only 18. His techniques used in these helped form his mature art style

Ø Modeled the figures in clay, and rearranged them until he has a rhythmic, dynamic composition, and worked directly from the final figure

Ø 1929-created a series of murals called America Today- shows Americans dancing, socializing, and having fun, watching a movie

Ø Concave and Convex- elements of composition  that strain and heave against each other; figures appear to burst from the wall

Ø Used strips of diagonal molding to divide the panel into separate scenes that have cinematic quality

Ø 1935- accepted teaching position in Kansas City, Missouri- returned permanently to his home town

Ø Quote- “I have an inner conviction that, for all the contradictory struggles I have gone through , I have finally come to something that is in the image of America”(6)

Ø By the 1940s, the “American Scene” had changed-life became urbanized & towns had grown in likeness

Ø Popularity of Regionalism decreased, Benton worried about where his art would fit in

Ø Focus goes off of human machinery and Benton practices more landscapes- Threshing Wheat

Ø Quote- “America is a land of pioneers and farm folk, and when art reflects with culture, then it is art.”