A leader of the American Scene movement of the 1930s, Thomas Hart Benton celebrated the rural Midwest in a series of major mural commissions. Born in Neosho, Missouri, Benton studied art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; The Art Institute of Chicago, and in Paris at the Académies Julian and Colarossi. Settling in New York City following his return to America, Benton experimented with avant-garde styles, and in 1916 he participated in the modernist Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painters, held at New York's Anderson Galleries. By the end of the decade, however, he was devoting most of his attention to developing the expressive figure painting that became his trademark.

Between 1919 and 1926 Benton worked on his first mural project, the American Historical Epic. The uncompleted set of panels remained in the possession of the artist, but other commissions followed, including America Today for New York's New School for Social Research and The Arts of Life in America for the library of the Whitney Museum of American Art. By the early 1930s Benton's left-wing socialism had evolved into a more populist outlook, and after completing murals for Indiana and Missouri, Benton became a spokesperson for those who championed nativist strains in American art. In 1935 Benton moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he remained for the rest of his life. Although Abstract Expressionism and the revival of internationalism pushed the artist from the spotlight after World War II, Benton continued to execute mural projects and was the recipient of numerous honors later in his career. The artist died in Kansas City in 1975.

History of Missouri: City Slums is a study for a portion of Benton's landmark mural cycle A Social History of the State of Missouri, executed for the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City. In 1935 Benton was approached by state legislators who had admired the artist's murals for the Indiana State Pavilion at the Century of Progress Exposition, held in Chicago in 1933. The Missouri project appealed to the artist, as did the terms, which included a $16,000 stipend and the freedom to choose his own subjects. Commencing his preparatory studies in the fall of 1935, Benton had begun painting by the following June. Over the next months, he decorated the walls of the House Lounge, depicting scenes from Missouri history, folklore, and contemporary life. Some controversy arose over Benton's choice of images, among which were scenes of Jesse James's criminal exploits and a mother wiping a baby's bottom. Overall, however, the murals were well received, and in later years Benton himself considered them to be among his best work.

City Slums is a vignette drawn from the lives of the state's urban poor. During the depression years, those who could not afford coal or firewood were forced to scavenge combustible material from debris scattered along railroad tracks. In Benton's image, an African American woman wearing a pink dress reaches into a heap of trackside garbage for something that she can burn. To the left, a group of three tired-looking men rest in the lee of a building. A boxcar and a desolate shack, both with gaping doorways, recall the transient life of the hobo, while in the distance, smoking factory stacks and a gleaming grain elevator appear as ironic emblems of American prosperity.

Benton's study differs little from the final image, which occupies a horizontal space immediately to the right of the door in the south wall of the House Lounge. Serving as its pendant on the left is a depiction of a prohibition-era speakeasy, featuring well-dressed white couples drinking and dancing to tunes made by black musicians. Surrounding the two vignettes are larger composite images depicting an array of city types ranging from brewers and stockyard workers to businessmen in suits. Over the door itself is a scene depicting the story of Frankie and Johnny, a legendary lover's quarrel that had become identified with Missouri folklore.

The focus on poverty in City Slums calls for a Socialist-Realist interpretation, yet Benton's reportorial presentation runs counter to the theatrical pathos that characterizes much American Socialist-Realist painting. Similarly, Benton's decision to reduce the scale of the scene to an incidental vignette suggests that the artist wished to downplay the inflammatory content of his image. However, Benton also felt compelled to portray what he understood to be every facet of Missouri life, even those that his contemporaries would have preferred to ignore. While such inclusiveness naturally led to controversy, it also gave the murals a ring of truth. Slated for a room reserved for state legislators, City Slums quietly counterbalances the celebratory tone that marks other parts of the mural composition. By portraying the bad alongside the good, Benton created a series of images that seemed not only "true" but that effectively complemented the clear-eyed honesty of Missouri's lawmakers.

VSD

REFERENCES

Matthew Baigell. Thomas Hart Benton. New York: Harry N. Abrams. 1975.

Thomas Hart Benton. An American in Art: A Professional and Technical Autobiography. Lawrence, KS; Manhattan, KS; Wichita and London: The University Press of Kansas, 1969.

Nancy Edelman. A Social History of the State of Missouri: The Thomas Hart Benton Murals in the Missouri State Capitol. N.p.: Missouri State Council on the Arts, 1975.