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Study for the Mural "A Social History of Indiana" (Steel Mill)
circa 1930
20th Century
11 5/8 in. x 8 3/4 in. (29.53 cm x 22.23 cm)
Thomas Hart Benton
(Neosho, Missouri, 1889 - 1975)
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Drawing |
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ink and pencil on paper |
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Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection:
Gift from the Diane and Sandy Besser Collection. 1992.003.029 |
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1992.003.029 |
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These sketches were preliminary studies for a mural executed by Benton for the Indiana State Exhibit at the "Century of Progress" International Exposition held in Chicago in 1933. Thomas Hart Benton was born in Missouri and found early employment as a cartoonist for the Joplin America, in Joplin, Missouri. From 1906-07 he attended the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and from 1908-11 he attended the Academie Julien, Paris. While living in Paris, Benton associated with many modern artists including John Marin, Diego Rivera, and Stanton MacDonald Wright. During the War in Europe, Benton returned to the U.S. where he met Walt Kuhn and Arthur B. Davies, co-chairmen of the famous exhibition of modern art: the Armory Show of 1912-13. Shortly after, Benton exhibited in the Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painting at Anderson Galleries. Thomas Hart Benton identified with grassroots America after World War I, was labeled by some as a Regionalist, and became critical of the international modernism on which he had been trained. In the 1920s he began a major mural program, established a reputation, and assumed a teaching position at the Art Students League, NY, 1926-35. He soon settled into a pattern of studio painting punctuated by early mural commissions for the New School of Social Research, New York (1928 to 1930) and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1932 (later given to New Britain Institute, Connecticut). Following those murals, Benton received the commission for the mural to be painted as a pictorial showcase for the state of Indiana in the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. The final work measured 14 x 230 feet and became Benton's largest mural. Surprisingly, he had only six months to complete it. Steel Mill, Study for the Mural, 'A Social History of Indiana,' was done as a preparatory drawing for this mural. The final work was divided into two main themes: Industrial Progress and Cultural Progress, and in total there were fourteen different panels. Together they recounted the history of Indiana from the first settlers through the modern industrial development. Obviously the Steel Mill study was done for the Industrial Progress and specifically relates to a panel called Indiana Puts Her Trust in Work. According to Henry Adams, here Benton specifically depicts a view of the Bedford-Bloomington district. He states, "In the background are an oil storage tank and factory smokestacks." While the drawing was used to create a visual reminder for specific structures, it is used simultaneously as a symbol for Indiana's contribution to the Industrial Revolution. Following the Indiana mural, he received a commission for the Federal Post Office in Washington, D.C. (1934). At times, Benton's murals were criticized as politically reactionary and isolationist by the political left. Benton became very critical, in turn, of the Eastern art establishment, its leftward leaning politics and modernist aesthetic views. He left New York in 1935, moving back to Missouri to paint the State Capitol mural and to teach at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Source: Time Travelers: The Twentieth Century Through Art, Artmobile Catalogue
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