Thomas Hart Benton
Kansas City’s most famous artist-in-residence was Thomas Hart Benton, known for his graceful and detailed murals celebrating (and sometimes criticizing) American life. Benton was born in Neosho, Missouri, in 1889. He was the son of a lawyer-turned-United States representative, and the great-nephew of a Washington senator, for whom he was named. Following his love and talent for art, Benton enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago at age 18, and upon graduation, he headed for Paris, then New York, and finally the Navy.
While living in New York, and on Martha’s Vineyard, in the 1920s and 1930s, Benton mixed his painting with intellectual pursuits, often trading ideas with radicals of the time, many of whom extolled the virtues of Marxism. When Benton moved away from these radical ideas, these former friends turned on him. He would later use the criticism as the inspiration for several of his murals.
By the 1930s, Benton was well-established as America’s to, yet often controversial, muralist. It was around this time that he decided to return to his Midwest roots and teach at the Kansas City Art Institute. He was dismissed after a dispute in 1941, but continued to live and work in Kansas City until his death in 1975 at the age of 86.
Going out as colorfully as he lived, Benton simply collapsed at his easel, paint brush in hand. Many of Benton’s best works are on permanent exhibit at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art here in Kansas City. Benton’s home and carriage house studio at 3616 Belleview in the Valentine District of Kansas City are now historic landmarks open to the public.
Courtesy hmdb.org
