Thomas Hart Benton

Thomas Hart Benton is one of Missouri’s most well-known and well-documented artists. Today Benton is best known for his paintings in the Regionalist style that depict the American scene through its people, history and landscape, but early in his career Benton’s painting style was abstract. He was influenced by the artists he met while studying first at The Chicago Art Institute and then at the Académie Julian in Paris. By 1911, Benton had returned to the United States and settled in New York City, where he taught at both the Art Students League and the New School for Social Research in Manhattan. It was in New York City that Benton began to turn away from his abstract style in search of a new style rooted in America, rather than Europe.

In 1930 Benton was commissioned to paint a mural for the progressive New School for Social Research, America Today. The mural depicts dynamic scenes of people at work and leisure across the country and was painted in Benton’s new Regionalist style. The mural proved controversial and was dismissed by some critics as vulgar for its unglorified depiction of everyday life and for its stylized figures and dramatic compositions, but it catapulted Benton on to the national stage and garnered more commissions, including the murals adorning the walls of the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City and in 1934 the cover of Time magazine.

In 1935 Benton returned to Missouri, accepting a faculty position at the Kansas City Art Institute and establishing a studio in the garage of his home, now a State Historical Site. In 1936-1937, Benton was an instructor at the Ste. Genevieve Art Colony during the summer, teaching form, depth, and composition of old master paintings. He received a successful career retrospective exhibition in 1939 at the galleries of the Associated American Artists, an exhibition that was also shown at William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and the Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts in Kansas City. Although Benton was fired from his position at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1941 for making homophobic comments aimed at staff at the Nelson Gallery, his work continued to sell through his New York gallery.

Although Benton’s national prominence began to recede in the late 1940s, during this period he sold his work locally and painted murals, including those at the Truman Library. Today, his reputation has been critically reassessed, and he is considered one of the major American artists of the 21st century.

The life and works of this artist have been extensively researched and documented. To find articles and books on this artist, visit the library catalogs of these partner institutions: St. Louis Public Library, Spencer Art Reference Library at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Jannes Library at the Kansas City Art Institute.  To find other resources in your area, including those of public and academic libraries, visit WorldCat.org.