1945 Print New Years Eve Ozarks Missouri Log Cabin Thomas Hart Benton Art XAA5
CONDITION
This 66+ year old Item is rated Near Mint. No natural defects. No surface rub. No tears. No water damage.
- Product Type: Original Color Print; Color
- Grade: Near Mint
- Dimensions: Approximately 9.25 x 12 inches; 23 x 30 cm
- Authentication: Serial-Numbered Certificate of Authenticity w/ Full Provenance
- Protection: Packaged in a custom archival sleeve with an acid-free black board (great for display, gift-giving, and preservation)
This piece was illustrated by Benton, Thomas Hart. There is no visible artist signature.
Benton, Thomas Hart
Thomas Hart Benton (15 April 1889 - 19 January 1975) was a Regionalist American painter and muralist, as well as an educator.
Born in Neosho, Missouri to family of influential politicians and powerbrokers, including his father, Congressman Maecenas Benton and his namesake and great-uncle, Thomas Hart Benton. BentonÕs childhood was thus split between Washington D.C. and the rural Missouri community of his birth. Rebelling against his familyÕs attempts to groom him for a political career, Benton passionately pursued art, enrolling at the age of eighteen in the Art Institute of Chicago, before moving to Paris in 1909 to attend the Académie Julian. While in Paris, Benton met and befriended Diego Rivera and Stanton MacDonald-Wright, later adapting MacDonald-WrightÕs abstract, synchronistic style, combining it with an extensive knowledge and understanding of Renaissance art.
Upon his return to the United States in 1913, Benton settled in New York City. During World War I, he served in the United States Navy, drawing the life and work of the shipyards of Norfolk, Virginia. His artistic experience during the war years and the common, ordinary theme of his work would come to have an unqualified effect on Benton. Following the conclusion of his service, Benton returned to New York City in the early 1920s.
It was during this time in New York that Benton developed and refined his representational, naturalistic and thematic style. In conjunction with Grant Wood and John Curry, Benton ushered-in American scene painting, better known as Regionalism, declaring himself the enemy of modernism and removing himself to the rural and pastoral landscapes of his youth in Missouri. Benton would subsequently travel throughout the United States, painting numerous and significant murals and scenes of ordinary American life, capturing in his distinct style both the mundane and fantastical. BentonÕs contributionÕs to American art were not simply limited to the immediate impact of his own work, but included significant contributions as an educator.
Benton taught at the Art Students League of New York (1926 to 1935) and the Kansas City Art Institute (1935-1941), where he educated a number of young artists who would go on to make significant contributions to American art. His most notable student was Jackson Pollock, a founder of the Abstract Expressionist movement, who said of Benton, Òmy work with Benton was important as something against which to react very strongly, later on; in this, it was better to have worked with him than with a less resistant personality who would have provided a much less strong opposition.Ó BentonÕs strong personality was frequently noted; he was not afraid of spurring controversy, doing so on numerous occasions, most notably with his inclusion of the Klu Klux Klan in his mural of the social evolution of Indiana, which the State of Indiana had commissioned for the 1933 Chicago WorldÕs Fair.
Benton died in 1975 while completing his final mural, The Sources of Country Music, for the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee.
Keywords specific to this image: Holidays, Celebration, Overalls
XAA5C45 zz6274