The Sources of Country Music 1975

Thomas Hart Benton made this painting, “The Sources of Country Music,” and just look at those colors! He's got this way of layering them, thin glazes and thick strokes, which makes the whole thing feel like it’s moving, like the music itself is jumping off the canvas. What gets me is the way he builds up the forms, like the fiddler's hands, all knotty and real, or the guitar player in the foreground, practically bursting out of the painting. It’s like Benton’s wrestling with the paint, trying to capture something raw and true about these people and their music. The paint is thick and juicy in some places, like the foreground tree stump, and then thin and transparent, building a dynamic rhythm that takes you through the composition. Benton reminds me a bit of El Greco, that same kind of elongated, almost cartoonish exaggeration, but with a distinctly American twang. His paintings are a reminder that art doesn’t have to be polite or pretty – it can be loud, messy, and full of life.