Thomas Hart Benton: A Question of Race

"Independence and the Opening of the West"
by Thomas Hart Benton

"City Building" panel from "America Today" mural
by Thomas Hart Benton

After reading this series of posts about Thomas Hart Benton and seeing the paintings that I had chosen to show with them, a friend noted that he was surprised by the lack of Native American, African American and immigrant representation in the work of Benton and other American Regionalist painters. He asked if that was a quirk of sampling or an attitude on their parts.

My short answer would be that I had just happened to show work chosen simply because I either liked it artistically or thought it illustrated the post for the day. This is generally the nature of Facebook posts with authors that have limited time to create them.

But I think a longer answer would also be interesting, because Benton's approach to his work had him combing through both the history of his themes and the people that inhabited them. He saw himself not so much as a writer - although he was that - but more as a visual storyteller. In fact, much of the time spent on creating any one of his murals was spent in research. In the case of "A Social History of the State of Missouri," he spent 3,000 hours traveling throughout the state, listening to people's anecdotes, making many, many sketches, and doing research of all kinds. The result was a visual account that showed the intertwined histories of black, native, and white Americans - both in real life and in famous stories and songs associated with the state or theme of the mural. If the people or events had been significant, regardless of race, they were shown.

Black and Native Americans appear in Benton's most famous murals: "America Today," "The Arts of Life in America," "The Indiana Murals," and "A Social History of the State of Missouri." Their contributions and influences in relationship to the theme of those murals are shown - such as the impact of spirituals on American music in "The Arts of Life in America" or agricultural and industrial productivity in "America Today." They also play a very significant part of the theme in smaller mural installations as well.

Benton never shied away from portraying what he saw as the truth. Among the more noble and typical representations of a state's industry, culture, and achievements, scenes were included in his murals that show slaves being beaten, the Ku Klux Klan setting a cross on fire, hunting grounds destroyed, notorious outlaws and the tawdriness of life. In response critics wrote scathing reviews, there were protests from a variety of communities and some tried to have his work removed - even quite recently. Through it all Benton persisted, feeling that the makeup of our historic roots and society is a complicated business, that it is not clean cut, and that all should be shown regardless. 

My friend's question could have a thesis written on it. There are certainly published articles that address it. One that I would recommend for anyone wanting to pursue this further is "Art for America: Race in Thomas Hart Benton's Murals, 1919-1936" by Austen Barron Bailly in the "Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 105, No. 2. However, it would be easier just to google "Thomas Hart Benton paintings" and having a good, careful look. The answer will be clear.