Thomas Benton Research Paper

Unity has always been the goal of America. However, as their land expanded their unification fractured. From 1800 to 1850, America was separated between slave supporters and slave abolitionists. As America moved west, the conflict between the two sides increased because of the issues regarding southern farming, slaves states, and contradicting new laws.

University of Iowa. He painted the familiar surroundings and everyday life of his nativestate and was one of the Regionalist group of painters of the American Scene. He once said that all the really good ideas he ever had came to him while he was milking a cow. In 1930, the Art Institute of Chicago purchased one of his most famous paintings, American Gothic, for $300.00, and he immediately received national attention. At the

One of his major works was the beginning of the Migration of the Negro or better known as “The migration series”. This is a 60 -panel painting that depicted the life of the Southern Negros migrating the urban cities in the North in the 1900’s straight up to world war l in search of work. The migration series had many pieces to it; however the cohesiveness of this work made it into a mural-like piece of art. This series of painting captured the

John Augustus Walker’s (1901-1967) Historical Panorama of Alabama Agriculture, or fair murals, were created in the spring of 1939. Each mural, about 7 ½ feet by 5 ½ feet, hang today in the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, at Auburn University. These ten murals were made to represent the “vision of the future” in the south during 1939. Depicted in each of the murals are key milestones in the agricultural development of the state of Alabama; ranging from Alabama’s First Farmer to Science on the Farm. These murals were said to be “A series of bold, nostalgic paintings at the 1939 Alabama State Fair that helped visitors to forget world troubles and celebrate their collective past.” Walker used bright tempura paints, in greens, yellows, and blues, on the vast landscapes and farm life scenes to attract viewers in hopes of educating farmers and non-farmers of improvements in agriculture.

After high school he studied in the United States and Europe and developed an interest in Impressionism. While he was in Germany while working on a commission, it gave him a chance to see early German artwork and giving him influences on his art work, taking it in more of an American direction. One of his first paintings in his new style was American Gothic. This was one of the most iconic and recognizable images in American art. This painting helped Wood to gain fame and launch the Regionalist movement, of which Wood became the spokesperson.

Thomas Hart Benton is known as one of the great American painters.He used art to portray to history and current events of America. He once said "history was not a scholarly study for me but a drama 1." Growing up in Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri, my school went on yearly trips to the Capitol. On all of the trips I viewed Thomas Hart Benton's "A Social History of the State of Missouri." Benton's mural told the history of my state through bright colors and vivid portraits. The mural ignited a love of art and a love of Thomas Hart Benton. When I heard about "American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood" at Nelson Atkins Museum of Art showcasing almost one hundred of Benton's works I knew I had to see them

James Jerome Hill was born on September sixteenth, 1838 in Wellington, Canada in the province of Ontario. His father was James Hill and his mother was Ann Dunbar, they married in 1833. Together they had 4 children the first son James died at birth, their oldest was Mary Elizabeth. James J. Hill was the middle child and the youngest was Alexander Samuel, they were a year apart. In the Hill family most, of the boys had the name, James. At the age of 14, James got a job working at Rockwood where he got paid a dollar or two each week. He would milk the cows and chop wood, here he also learned how to communicate with customers. The three siblings moved to Guelph together after Mary got married. Both Mary and Alexander wanted have children and

Success came late for Wood who spent his life in his native Iowa where he found his inspiration and subjects. At the start of his career he was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement and then painted in a manner that could be compared to those of John Sloan, Edward Hopper, Edouard Vuillard or

John roger’s is the famous name very popular in all over the world as an American sculptor whose style and production methods shows an inventory path to the modern art. His art was very popular with middle-class art collectors in the 19th century and defines the feelings of nostalgia and a longing for simpler times, helped Americans come to terms with the contentious issues of the Reconstruction period following the Civil War in between 1859 to 1892.

William Lisle Bowles was born into a legacy of clergy work. The eldest son of his parents, William Thomas Bowles and Bridget Grey Bowles, he received a good education even though there was not much money in the family. His love of nature was soon discovered by Joseph Warton, headmaster of the school in Winchester. He influenced Bowles’ style and the recurrent appearance of nature in his works. He also helped the young man gain enemies. Joseph taught Bowles about the poetical hierarchy and that a man named Alexander Pope was among the lesser members of the group. From then one, Bowles would continually put Pope’s work down. Lord Byron, another author featured in this anthology was a loyal follower of Pope. The result was pamphlet war

Norman Rockwell was a 20th century American author, illustrator, and painter. Rockwell is most famous for depicting American everyday life in the Saturday Evening Post. Over the span of five decades, he devoted his talent to this newspaper. The public adored his illustrations. However, critics did not share the feeling; some thought his work was too simplistic and meaningless. Despite the criticism his work proved to be very helpful for generations today. Rockwell’s reasons for the work he made were to show realism of American culture. Life during this time is easier to understand through his work. One specific accomplished in1930 is an untitled painting, commonly recognized as “two men sharing a coffee pot”. This painting is of two elderly

Thomas Hart Benton was born in Neosho, Missouri in 1889 into a family of prominent politicians committed to political republicanism and populism. His father was a congressman, and his great-uncle, for whom he was named, was an important US senator. Benton later recalled that, "Politics was the core of our family life." Through his art, in particular his murals, Benton sought to continue his family's support of nineteenth-century political republicanism, upholding the producers of society, and scornful of big business and big banks. Expected to follow his family's well-trodden path, instead, with his mother's encouragement he chose to study art. Starting at age seventeen he worked as a cartoonist for a local paper. Escaping the confines of small

Some of his earlier series consists of domestic interior paintings of women. Those paintings communicated a sense of human hopelessness that characterized the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Thomas Hart Benton was a muralist and an American painter. He had focus on the Regionalist movement art along with Grant and John Curry. Thomas Benton has had a great impact on the color, the resonant ideas and exuberance. Benton identified different diverse ideas of contradiction: the rituals and the urban, freedom, oppression, the poor, rich labor and entertainment (Marling, 1982). As Mural developed the ideas, he span two epochs on the excess of “Jazz Age” and bitter side of depression in the country. This was expressed in the art work that he presented in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This work spread across the country in 1900s which led to his work being challenged by other illustrators.