.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Among America’s greatest visual storytellers, Thomas Hart Benton captured the majesty and mythology of the heartland in his stunning paintings of the nation’s landscape and its people. Despite notably forming a close relationship with abstract painter Jackson Pollock, who studied under Benton at the Art Students League in New York, Benton himself sought to create work that remained realistic to the American experience. At the same time, Benton infused modernity into his subject matter, employing his distinct visual vocabulary of swirling outlines and play with perspective to elevate his surroundings into a compelling composition of modern art. Indeed, Benton himself was clear: “Contrary to general belief, the ‘Regionalist’ movement did not in any way oppose abstract form. It simply wished to put meanings, recognizable American meanings, into some of it” (An American in Art: A Professional and Technical Autobiography, Lawrence, Kansas, 1969, p. 77).
Current River, Missouri Ozarks is an important mature work, paying homage to the artist’s home state and recalling his intimate connection to the American landscape. In the 1960s and 70s, Benton spent almost every spring on float trips in Missouri and northwest Arkansas, using his surroundings as the primary inspiration for his art. Reminiscing about his many river trips in the Ozarks, Benton wrote: "For years I've floated down these rivers every Spring either by canoe or ‘jon’ boat, an extra-long sort of skiff. Sometimes the water is fast and rough, at other times it slows up in deep pools. Generally, the river floaters I run with make camp at the end of the day on the gravel bars lining one of these pools and fish them while supper is cooked." (Creekmore Fath, The Lithographs of Thomas Hart Benton, Austin, Texas, 1979, p. 192) The present work captures Benton’s admiration for the landscape, complete with the winding, ever-changing river that fascinated him.
Dominated by layers of sinuous lines, Current River, Missouri Ozarks is executed with Benton’s signature fluid brushwork to create a palpable sense of motion and unifying rhythm. Benton called this method “the bump and hollow.” As Louis Menand summarizes, “It’s how you know you’re looking at a Benton. His paintings, whatever their subject matter, are structured as rows of highly contoured forms, with exaggerated chiaroscuro to mimic three-dimensionality. His practice was to create a complete maquette of the scene he wanted to paint…light it dramatically, and then copy it onto the canvas.” (“The Bump and the Hollow of Thomas Hart Benton,” The New Yorker, 1 July 2015) Indeed, with this technique, Benton imbues the Current River with a sense of movement that is enhanced by the swirling clouds looming overhead.
Infusing the present work with his profound love for the familiar Missouri landscape and his characteristically swirling compositional forms, Benton creates a work distinctly modern in character. A leading figure of American Modernism, Benton instilled deep admiration in the next generation of artists. Of his mentor, Pollock wrote: “Benton is beginning to be recognized as the foremost American painter today. He has lifted art from the stuffy studio into the world and happenings about him, which has a common meaning to the masses.” (as quoted in E. Doss, Benton, Pollock, and the Politics of Modernism: From Regionalism to Abstract Expressionism, Chicago, Illinois, 1991, p. 323)
Current River, Missouri Ozarks is an important mature work, paying homage to the artist’s home state and recalling his intimate connection to the American landscape. In the 1960s and 70s, Benton spent almost every spring on float trips in Missouri and northwest Arkansas, using his surroundings as the primary inspiration for his art. Reminiscing about his many river trips in the Ozarks, Benton wrote: "For years I've floated down these rivers every Spring either by canoe or ‘jon’ boat, an extra-long sort of skiff. Sometimes the water is fast and rough, at other times it slows up in deep pools. Generally, the river floaters I run with make camp at the end of the day on the gravel bars lining one of these pools and fish them while supper is cooked." (Creekmore Fath, The Lithographs of Thomas Hart Benton, Austin, Texas, 1979, p. 192) The present work captures Benton’s admiration for the landscape, complete with the winding, ever-changing river that fascinated him.
Dominated by layers of sinuous lines, Current River, Missouri Ozarks is executed with Benton’s signature fluid brushwork to create a palpable sense of motion and unifying rhythm. Benton called this method “the bump and hollow.” As Louis Menand summarizes, “It’s how you know you’re looking at a Benton. His paintings, whatever their subject matter, are structured as rows of highly contoured forms, with exaggerated chiaroscuro to mimic three-dimensionality. His practice was to create a complete maquette of the scene he wanted to paint…light it dramatically, and then copy it onto the canvas.” (“The Bump and the Hollow of Thomas Hart Benton,” The New Yorker, 1 July 2015) Indeed, with this technique, Benton imbues the Current River with a sense of movement that is enhanced by the swirling clouds looming overhead.
Infusing the present work with his profound love for the familiar Missouri landscape and his characteristically swirling compositional forms, Benton creates a work distinctly modern in character. A leading figure of American Modernism, Benton instilled deep admiration in the next generation of artists. Of his mentor, Pollock wrote: “Benton is beginning to be recognized as the foremost American painter today. He has lifted art from the stuffy studio into the world and happenings about him, which has a common meaning to the masses.” (as quoted in E. Doss, Benton, Pollock, and the Politics of Modernism: From Regionalism to Abstract Expressionism, Chicago, Illinois, 1991, p. 323)