Thomas Hart Benton. By Matthew Baigell.

Umschlag leicht berieben, sonst gutes Exemplar. - Thomas Hart Benton is surely the most American of artists. The past, the present, and the future of our country have been his preoccupation during an artistic career spanning more than half a century. This volume, produced with the active cooperation of the artist, places before the reader the entire exciting panorama of Benton's work, including many pictures never before published. Benton approaches his subjects with the same verve that Renaissance artists brought to their historic and human themes. If his stylistic roots can be traced to Michelangelo and the Mannerists, his brilliant painterly approach is rooted in his own personality and his native ambience. After a brief involvement with the academies and the isms of the Parisian milieu, Benton began to concentrate on the American scene and the American experience. He journeyed through the country, pencil and brush at the ready ; to an eagerly responsive public his lively, atmospheric drawings and paintings, with their swinging rhythms and spirited compositions, demonstrated that American life was a subject of real artistic vitality. And, because he believed that the mural can encompass the greatest amount of that life-its drama, energy, and force-he favored this medium, becoming a major figure in the history of American mural painting. Prominently featured in this book are the famous Benton murals painted for the New School for Social Research and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, for the State of Indiana, for the Missouri State Capitol, and for the Municipal Building in Joplin. A number are reproduced in large foldouts. Much has happened in American art since Benton was a member of the American vanguard. Throughout these years Benton has been his own man. Both in his art and in the expression of his opinions on art he has been independent and outspoken. His gusty realism and restless vision, epic as well as intimate, make a strong appeal to art-lovers of every persuasion. In a compact and balanced text, combining historical acumen with sound aesthetic judgment, Dr. Matthew Baigell, professor of art at Rutgers University, traces Benton's course from his boyhood as the nonconforming scion of an illustrious Missouri family, through his art studies in Chicago, New York, and Paris, his naval service in World War I, his break with Parisian modernism, his espousal of regionalism, and his return to the Middle West. The author's thorough knowledge of Benton's writings (he has compiled a Benton anthology) and his direct contacts with the artist enable him to speak with impressive authority. The magnificent illustrations, almost half in full color, present a vista of America that is uniquely Thomas Hart Benton's and, by virtue of his artistic integrity, uniquely American. Added textual features of the volume are a full chronology and a selected bibliography.