Thomas Hart Benton 1889-1975
34 x 85.1 cm
Schoelkopf Gallery is the exclusive worldwide representative of the Thomas Hart Benton Trust.
The present study relates to Thomas Hart Benton's mural, Joplin at the Turn of the Century (1972). Commissioned by the Joplin City Council, Benton's mural depicts a bustling city street, showcasing a medley of social classes and Joplin's mining industry to celebrate the city's centennial anniversary. The mural incorporated many autobiographical elements for Benton, including a figure at the center left of the composition that represents a young Tom Benton working as a cartoonist. Notable elements include the aforementioned House of Lords saloon on the left side of the composition, which in this study has a blank sign above it. The Joplin mural was completed in April 1972 and unveiled during the city's centennial celebration in 1973. Originally installed in a government building on Third Street, the mural was moved to City Hall in 2005.
Provenance
The artist; toThe Thomas Hart and Rita Piacenza Benton Testamentary Trusts
Exhibitions
Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, organized by the Mid-America Arts Alliance; Department of Parks and Recreation, St. Louis, Missouri; Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas; Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska; Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City; Wichita Art Center, Kansas; Spiva Art Center, Joplin, Missouri; Charles H. MacNider Museum, Mason City, Iowa; David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Illinois; The Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas; Springfield Art Museum, Missouri; Huntsville Museum of Art, Alabama; Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, Tennessee; Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, Minnesota, Benton's Bentons: Selections from The Thomas Hart Benton and Rita P. Benton Trusts, July 13, 1980-June 26, 1983, no. 53The Boise Gallery of Art, Idaho; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska; Yellowstone Art Center, Billings, Montana; Utah Museum of Fine Arts; Cheney Cowels Memorial Museum, Spokane, Washington; Lakeview Museum of Art & Sciences, Peoria, Illinois; Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville, Tennessee; Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Florida; Albany Museum of Art, Georgia; Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi; and Springfield Art Museum, Missouri, Thomas Hart Benton: An Intimate View, 1986-1988
Literature
Elizabeth Broun, Douglas Hyland, and Marilyn Stokstad, Benton’s Bentons: Selections from the Thomas Hart Benton and Rita P. Benton Trusts, Lawrence, Kansas: Spencer Museum of Art, 1980, no. 53, p. 63, as Finished StudyHenry Adams, Thomas Hart Benton: An Intimate View, Kansas City, Missouri: The Lowell Press, Inc., with Smith Kramer Art Connections, 1986, p. 30, illus., p. 36, as Joplin Mural (Sketch)
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