On view June 6, 2015 to September 7, 2015
This summer enjoy the first major exhibition on Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) in more than 25 years and the first to explore important connections between Benton’s art and the movies.
After working briefly in the silent film industry, Benton became acutely aware of storytelling’s shift toward motion pictures.
He developed a cinematic style of painting that melded European art historical traditions and modern movie production techniques. In paintings, murals and drawings, Benton reinvented national narratives for 20th-century America and captivated the public with his visual storytelling.
In the 1930s Benton was probably the most famous American artist alive. His face had been on the cover of Time magazine in 1934. He had painted a number of large-scale, critically acclaimed murals, culminating in “America Today,” a series of 10 panels depicting life in different regions of thecountry. He had also just published a well-received autobiography, “An Artist in America.”
Simultaneously attracted and repulsed by the film industry, Benton wrote, ….”(It is).. “an economically conditioned art,” its products “like gambling in the stock market,” “plays for a cash return” — the whole enterprise reliant less on genuine creativity than on “tricks.” His underlying message? It’s all a con. You can see Benton’s movie-mad mindset beginning to congeal in the bizarre breakthrough painting he made in 1920 called “People of Chilmark”.
Chilmark is the village on Martha’s Vineyard where Benton spent many of his summers. The people in the painting are identifiable inhabitants — convenient extras. And yet the work itself is utterly impersonal. It’s a dazzling exercise in color, composition and social commentary.
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PEM Website
Boston Globe review Benton