A Social History of the State of Missouri (detail) 1936

This is a detail of Thomas Hart Benton's mural, "A Social History of the State of Missouri," and you know, when I look at this, I just see him, Benton, wrestling with the paint, smearing it across the surface to wrestle with the subject matter. He must have been thinking about how history isn't just dates and names. It's the grit, the sweat, the everyday lives of people. Look at the way he's modeled those figures, all sinew and muscle. The way the bodies strain and pull, especially the men chopping wood! The colours give the whole image a sepia-toned feel of nostalgia. Benton was part of the Regionalist movement, and he was trying to create a uniquely American art. He looked back to El Greco and the Renaissance masters, but he’s also trying to capture something raw and real about this specific place. Artists are always in conversation with the past, trying to find their own voice. The whole thing is about the messiness of life, and the way that ambiguity is where meaning really starts to spark.