Artist

Thomas Hart Benton

born Neosho, MO 1889-died 1975 Kansas City, MO
Media - J0001255_1b.jpg - 87594
Thomas Hart Benton seated in front of History of New York , © Peter A. Juley & Son Collection, Smithsonian American Art Museum J0001255
Also known as
  • Tom Benton
  • Thomas H. Benton
Born
Neosho, Missouri, United States
Died
Kansas City, Missouri, United States
Active in
  • New York, New York, United States
Biography

An American scene painter who, along with John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood, was a leading regionalist painter of the 1930s. Well known for his murals and portraits depicting everyday life, particularly in the Midwest, Benton authored two autobiographies, An Artist in America (1937) and An American in Art (1969).

Joan Stahl American Artists in Photographic Portraits from the Peter A. Juley & Son Collection (Washington, D.C. and Mineola, New York: National Museum of American Art and Dover Publications, Inc., 1995)

Works by this artist (4 items)

Paul Henry Ramirez, SPIN (pink), 2009, screenprint on linen canvas with rotating wall-mount armature, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2011.11.2A-B, © 2009, Paul Henry Ramirez
SPIN (pink)
Date2009
screenprint on linen canvas with rotating wall-mount armature
Not on view
Paul Henry Ramirez, SPIN (orange), 2009, screenprint on linen canvas with rotating wall-mount armature, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2011.11.3A-B, © 2009, Paul Henry Ramirez
SPIN (orange)
Date2009
screenprint on linen canvas with rotating wall-mount armature
Not on view
Paul Henry Ramirez, SPIN (red), 2009, screenprint on linen canvas with rotating wall-mount armature, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2011.11.1A-B, © 2009, Paul Henry Ramirez
SPIN (red)
Date2009
screenprint on linen canvas with rotating wall-mount armature
Not on view

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      Achelous and Hercules by Thomas Hart Benton is a raucous, gaudy, vibrant mural, 22 feet long, full of surging shapes and churning rhythms. By the time Benton painted it for a Kansas City department store in 1947, he had already been tagged by the East Coast critics as an uncouth, outspoken, provincial artist, so he may have been playing to his critics with his bright colors and athletic figures.

      Related Books

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      Scenes of American Life: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
      Scenes of American Life: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum commemorates Treasures to Go, a series of eight exhibitions from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, touring the nation through 2002. The Principal Financial Group is a proud partner in presenting these treasures to the American people.