Thomas Hart Benton got a grant from the fellow Missourian Harry S. Truman's administration to do many murals, which are still there in the Jefferson City dome building.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5089/5289658162_e0f4f55b82.jpg
http://www.actingoutpolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/ThHartBenton.jpg
He was a expressionist/realist, and regionalist. Had a decades long falling out with young Jason Pollack, a former K.C. Art Institute student of his.
He never fit into the N.Y. scene, leaving in the '30s after painting was on one of the first Time Magazine covers. However, in 2012 the Metropolian museum hosted a "Thomas Hart Benton's America Today Mural Rediscovered" exhib for 3 years.
He was not happy with the left-leaning trend in the NY/Paris school. But as a realist he just represented life. KKK in full regalia for Indiana murals. Just a few years after they had elected Klan governor, so was not popular, to say the least. Was commissioned but no guidelines.
Most of his murals were of working people, unusual for the day, and of historic figures such as Jesse James or Twain's Huck Finn with escaped Slave Jim.
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[–] TheAntiZealot 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Are you trying to say that a whipcracker (a.k.a. "cracker") is a jew?
Well, they did say that only the financially well-off Americans had any slaves. That most people had none.
Regardless, thanks for sharing the art!
[–] deployable [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Yes, by the nose. St. Louis has many old jewish families that built their wealth on being the 2nd largest slave auction in the country. Just like the majority of slave ships were owned by Jewish companies. I wasn't aware of this 3-4 yrs ago. But when you start reading the Census records' names of slaveholders, and those who actually owned "Dutch" and Portuguese" shipping companies, it's amazing. 45% of jews were slaveholders in early 1800s vs. 2% of whites.
You're welcome. This was the Missouri realist, Bingham, that heavily influenced Hart Benton. http://georgecalebbingham.org/images/Family-Life-on-the-Fr.jpg
http://georgecalebbingham.org/images/Fur-Traders.jpg
http://georgecalebbingham.org/bio.htm
[–] deployable [S] ago
Hard to envision huge 30'x15' murals from small pics, but here is a trailer for an educational/history film that a professor/acquintance of mine did that aired on a handful of midwest PBS stations. Rumored that Ken Burns saw some of the raw footage and stole the idea for his acclaimed full length documentary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO2wJPebPtk