In Karen Rosenberg’s article Brother, Can You Spare a Wall?: Thomas Hart Benton’s ‘America Today’ Mural at the Met, she writes of the history behind one of the most well known pieces of art form the 1930’s. Thomas Hart Benton’s “America Today” Mural depicts the entirety of the United States during the Great Depression, spanning from New York to the North and the South. According to this article the artist was known in his time as an outsider to the “popular” art of the time, abstract expressionism. This concept of being “outside” the art of the norm reminded me quite a bit of the previous connection post regarding the “Ism that isn’t.” Megan did an amazing job thoroughly analyzing this connection post and bringing in outside information, researching things she did not understand and bringing them to light. She writes about the relevance of history and context in the interpretation of art, which is completely relevant to the Benton mural as most of the figures depicted were criticized for their crude stereotypes. However when taking into consideration the time, many of the stereotypes were fairly accurate. Another major point of Rosenberg’s article was the fact that many people criticized Benton’s artwork for not fitting in with the current “ism” : abstract expressionism. One thing I though was interesting was that she mentioned it was believed that he also shunned them, not just the other way around. Megan relates very similar points to this by addressing the “isms” that have characterized the changing tides of art over many centuries, and that continue to change today. She wrote “Michelangelo and Da Vinci to Cezanne to Monet to Picasso to…now,” really showing just how drastically things can change. This is very relevant in how Benton was viewed in is time period as and outsider to the norm. However I think that it has proven both for and against the history and context theory, as it is even more well known now in a time well beyond what it so specifically depicts, yet is also a key tool on education and learning. Both of these pieces were very clear and easy to understand, and brought a great amount of information to the table regarding context and isms of art in American history particularly.
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