The Artist’s Show, Washington Square, New York

Although Thomas Hart Benton had first been associated with the circle of Alfred Stieglitz, he began to feel that this group was too separated from reality, with their “play with colored cubes and classic attenuations.” His service in World War II as a naval draftsman forced him to make objective records of the navy yard and installations at Norfolk, Virginia. Upon his return to New York after the war, he advocated an “American scene” subject matter, in the face of adverse criticism. This movement, later called “regionalism” gained in popularity and included such prominent figures as Grant Wood, Sinclair Lewis, and Sherwood Anderson. But Benton’s interpretation of the American scene was unique, calling into play his knowledge of the dynamic energy and muscular, sinuous line of the work of Michelangelo and El Greco. The Washington Square art show occurred at the end of every summer in New York, drawing a wide range of artists, collectors, and spectators. Benton successfully captured the bustling character of the event. The animation of the figures and the amount of anecdotal information are typical of Benton’s dynamic and compact compositions, which influenced the work of his most famous student, Jackson Pollock. (From “A Handbook of the Collection: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art,” 1998)