On View
Not on viewObject number1977/8.43
The Meeting
Artist
Thomas Hart Benton
(American, 1889-1975)
Date1941
Mediumlithograph
Dimensionsimage: 8 7/8 × 11 1/2 in. (22.5 × 29.2 cm)
sheet: 12 5/8 × 16 3/4 in. (32.1 × 42.5 cm)
mat: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
sheet: 12 5/8 × 16 3/4 in. (32.1 × 42.5 cm)
mat: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Mrs. Cornelia Robinson
Exhibition History"36 Regionalist prints from the KIA," Dennos Museum Center (Sept. 8 - Nov. 24, 1996), Ella Sharp Museum, Jackson, MI (May 17 - July 13, 1997), Midland Center for the Arts (Aug. 2 - Sept. 21, 1997).
"The American Experience: Prints and Drawings, 1900-1946," KIA (??)Label TextBenton is typical of many Regionalist artists who came from rural backgrounds, studied the latest stylistic trends in Europe, and then abandoned European artistic concerns after returning to America. By 1920 nearly all of Benton’s work was based on the American scene and its folklore. His mature style, with its sharp contours and dramatic patterns of light and dark, was developed to express the energy and tumult he associated with the American experience. Benton wrote that “our basic cultural ideas, our beliefs as to what constitutes the ‘American character,’ our mythologies, had their origins in…earlier conditions.” This was what he wanted to represent in his work. The Meeting, based on a drawing made in 1928 of a meeting house in the mountains of West Virginia, described a scene inside a rural church which served as both a social and religious center for this country community.
