Thomas Hart Benton (2) (1889–1975)

This book had an enormous impact on me as a teenager way back when. Thomas Hart Benton talks about traveling around the USA and meeting people who are plain as dirt. He brings them alive and vivid with his words and sketches. That's what I wanted to do! Bum around! Mingle among the Grapes-of-Wrath people! Be an artist (with words, in my case). I don't think I ever read the book straight through but often dipped here and there until I couldn't sit still anymore and had to go hitchhike off show more somewhere. Maybe that says more about me than the book. And just now, a teen plus another 40 years, I picked up the book and read a few snatches and now want to hop in my car (no more thumbing, please) and cross the desert until I break down with a boiling radiator in front of some dumpy cafe in Texas where the only item on the menu is chicken-fried steak.

My well-worn edition (the original 1937 first edition) (and no, I wasn't alive back then - I stole my father's copy), anyway, my edition has about 60 sketches, and they're marvelous if you're a Benton fan. The current version of the book is the fourth edition which apparently includes updates that Benton added in later years along with a few more sketches - I haven't seen it. show less

Benton's casual racism and sexism make this almost unreadable to a modern reader - I wonder if the still-in-print edition is toned down?

That said, this is an epic travelogue through Depression Era USA, captured by an astute observer. The sketches throughout are of course excellent.

Purchased a 1939 edition from a used book store in Lawrence long ago, finally read following a long overdue visit to the Benton House, a Missouri State Park, on my last trip to KC

A sumptuously gorgeous study of one of my favorite artists, Thomas Hart Benton. He was a complex, headstrong and frequently self-involved man and controversial as an artist, but he lived long enough to see his art become praised by the critics, fade into obscurity, and enjoy a rebirth of critical and popular acclaim as an old man. He was the center of the artist colony on Martha's Vineyard, and developed relationships with several other artists of the day, including Jackson Pollock and John show more Steuart Curry. I was particularly pleased to find this book for $3 at an estate sale, months after declining to buy it for $50 at the rare book section of the St. Louis Book Fair. show less

This book is more what I was seeking as I began to explore Benton and his career. This is probably not for everyone as it does not cover as much about his life as it does give a technical autobiography of his career, his education and influences and the way his style and technique developed. This was what I wanted to know and I am grateful he left this for us. The section on Regionalism is fascinating, and I continue to be intrigued by the shifting perspectives he uses – not the realist show more perspectives we are taught in art school and drawing classes, but a stylized perspective that rounds and flattens to extremes. I also continue to be fascinated by his use of light and dark. For an artist interested in Regionalism or in Benton’s style this is a must read. The only reason I deducted a ½ star was that I was hoping for color plates of his art, but they are all black and white (that does help with exploring the tonal values, though, I must admit). show less