Thomas Hart Benton and the American Sound

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Painting the Song

2 Painting the Sound

3 Anthology

4 Regionalist Radio: Benton on Art for Your Sake

Epilogue: Sound, Touch, and Beyond

Appendixes

Notes

Bibliography

Index

“One of the finest contributions of Mazow’s project is that it seamlessly links Benton’s Regionalist agenda with his aural endeavors, highlighting the artist’s interest in not only folk songs, but also . . . numerous modes of civic discourse. The reader can see that Benton’s life was filled with town hall meetings, lectures, sermons, and, one can imagine, many “shooting the breeze” conversations with the citizens of the regions that he visited for months at a time. With so much imagery and so many overlapping themes and issues regarding sound in Benton’s oeuvre, imagining Benton’s own oral history is no small task. In effect, Mazow dissects the artist’s crowded, hyperbolic narratives to point out significant sonic moments—their visual language, the biography of the subjects, and the circumstances of the scene—while building an overall cohesive framework that organizes these sound bites of history for the reader.”

—Asma Naeem, CAA.Reviews