After 5: The Life and Art of Thomas Hart Benton

A recently released documentary of the Neosho native’s 60-year career reveals Benton’s unwavering affinity for his hometown while becoming one of the greatest influences on American art.

In “Thomas Hart Benton: From the Ozarks and Beyond,” writer and producer Paul Wannenmacher of Wannenmacher Advertising Co. explores the life and art of Benton – beginning with his family’s political past and Benton’s developing sense of art, pausing on his most notable mural in the state Capitol building and concluding with the impression he’s left on today’s art community, including Benton’s grandson.

The 28-minute documentary was produced for Ozarks Public Television, with the help of its executive producers, Tom Carter and Arlen Diamond.

Sense of art

Benton was born into a political family in Neosho on April 15, 1889. He was named after his U.S. senator uncle; his father, Col. M.E. Benton, was elected representative when Benton was 7. During time split between Neosho and Washington, D.C., Benton developed his sense of art and drew his first mural – a chugging steam-engine locomotive – in his Neosho home at age 8.

“Growing up in Neosho, Missouri, gave Thomas Hart Benton a unique perspective before his walk into the art world in Chicago, New York and Paris,” Wannenmacher says in the documentary.

When facing the critical global art world, Benton wrote in reflection, “We came in the popular mind to represent home-grown grassroots artistry.” Noting that the perception wasn’t positive, Benton is careful to add that he embraced his role in art as an Ozarks hillbilly and used it to his advantage.

His philosophy is perhaps most distinctly observed in “Joplin at the Turn of the Century, 1896–1906,” a mural now in Joplin City Hall. Benton created it for the southwest Missouri city’s centennial celebration in 1973 – just two years before he died.

The mural is full of mining references, captures Main Street Joplin and the House of Lords saloon, and even shows a young Benton, with his sleeves rolled up sketching as he would have then as a cartoonist for the Joplin American Newspaper.

Social history

Benton is probably best known for “A Social History of the State of Missouri,” a 100-foot wraparound mural at the state Capitol in Jefferson City.

With Benton’s use of bold, flowing designs and dramatic color, Wannenmacher notes that the mural feels as if the building’s 25-by-50-foot House Lounge was designed for the piece – not the other way around.

Benton pulls no punches capturing Missouri’s significant events. He recreates the arrival of the wagon train, trading of Osage Indian whiskey for fur, a slave lynching, Mormons chased out of the state, brother Mark Benton pleading a case as Greene County prosecutor, a prohibition speak-easy and a tribute to Mark Twain.

“Benton sees history,” journalist Bob Priddy of Missouri Net says on the film.

In Benton’s words, the controversial mural depicts “everyday life … open to free interpretation. … In the end, the meanings of the pictures must be found by those that view them.”

Another coup for Benton is his “The Departure of the Joads,” which was used on the “Grapes of Wrath” book cover. Benton donated the original to College of the Ozarks, where it now hangs in the Ralph Foster Museum along with other Benton sketches and lithographs.

Cultural influence

More than 30 years after his death, Benton’s work lives on in a big way through the annual Thomas Hart Benton Festival. Started in 2006, the festival is an arts and education symposium that attempts to preserve the art of murals and generate student interest in the style.

Through the program, there are nine murals in planning, including an 8-by-20-foot mural for Neosho City Hall by Benton’s grandson, Anthony Benton Gude.

The film draws out another impact of Benton’s work: “These murals are an excellent strategy for tourism, because they collaborate the renewed and growing interest in art in Newton County,” says Steve Roark, president of the county’s tourism council. “They enhance and coordinate existing tourism points and they have become a point of pride for our cities and communities.

“The culture of the Ozarks was a major influence on him,” Roark continues. “Now in turn, Mr. Benton’s legacy is influencing our culture.”