Thomas Hart Benton

In 1935 Benton returned to Missouri, accepting a faculty position at the Kansas City Art Institute and establishing a studio in the garage of his home, now a State Historical Site. In 1936-1937, Benton was an instructor at the Ste. Genevieve Art Colony during the summer, teaching form, depth, and composition of old master paintings. He received a successful career retrospective exhibition in 1939 at the galleries of the Associated American Artists, an exhibition that was also shown at William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and the Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts in Kansas City. Although Benton was fired from his position at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1941 for making homophobic comments aimed at staff at the Nelson Gallery, his work continued to sell through his New York gallery. Although Benton’s national prominence began to recede in the late 1940s, during this period he sold his work locally and painted murals, including those at the Truman Library. Today, his reputation has been critically reassessed, and he is considered one of the major American artists of the 21st century. The Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio State Historic Site at 3616 Belleview Ave, Kansas City, Missouri. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jack H. Mooney, NPG.75.30. “Thomas Hart Benton: Artist File,” Spencer Art Reference Library, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Lauren Kroiz, Cultivating Citizens: the Regional Work of Art in the New Deal Era (Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2018). Douglas Hurt, R. and Mary K. Dains, Thomas Hart Benton : Artist, Writer and Intellectual (Columbia, Mo: State Historical Society of Missouri, 1989). Erika Doss, Benton, Pollock, and the Politics of Modernism: From Regionalism to Abstract Expressionism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991). Matthew Baigell, An Artist in America (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1983). Henry Adams and Ellen Goheen, Thomas Hart Benton: An American Original (The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, 1989). St. Louis Public Library, St. Louis Art History Project: Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Artists (St. Louis: St. Louis Public Library, 1989). Scott Kerr and R. H. Dick, An American Art Colony: The Art and Artists of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri 1930-1940 (St. Louis: McCaughen & Burr Press, 2004). Anita Jacobsen, Jacobsen's Biographical Index of American Artists (Carrollton: A.J. Publications, 2002). William H. Gerdts, Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting, 1710-1920 (New York: Abbeville Press, 1990). Mantle Fielding, Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers (Green Farms: Modern Books and Crafts, 1974). National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jack H. Mooney, NPG.75.30. “Thomas Hart Benton: Artist File,” Spencer Art Reference Library, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Lauren Kroiz, Cultivating Citizens: the Regional Work of Art in the New Deal Era (Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2018). Douglas Hurt, R. and Mary K. Dains, Thomas Hart Benton : Artist, Writer and Intellectual (Columbia, Mo: State Historical Society of Missouri, 1989). Erika Doss, Benton, Pollock, and the Politics of Modernism: From Regionalism to Abstract Expressionism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991). Matthew Baigell, An Artist in America (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1983). Henry Adams and Ellen Goheen, Thomas Hart Benton: An American Original (The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, 1989). St. Louis Public Library, St. Louis Art History Project: Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Artists (St. Louis: St. Louis Public Library, 1989). Scott Kerr and R. H. Dick, An American Art Colony: The Art and Artists of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri 1930-1940 (St. Louis: McCaughen & Burr Press, 2004). Anita Jacobsen, Jacobsen's Biographical Index of American