Edge of Town (Primary Title)
Thomas Hart Benton, American, 1889 - 1975 (Artist)
During the Great Depression, painter and muralist Thomas Hart Benton emerged as one of the foremost American Scene artists. Maintaining narrative figuration during the rise of abstraction, he and his so-called regionalist contemporaries produced images of ordinary life in small towns and rural landscapes. Edge of Town—with its theme of an older, simpler existence being transformed by technology—was published by Associated American Artists (AAA), New York. Throughout the late 1930s and early ’40s, AAA sold tens of thousands of affordable lithographs to middle-class patrons by mail order from popular magazines.
Signed Benton in graphite lower right and in plate lower left
Gift of Frank Raysor in honor of David R. Goode
A Celebration of Print: 500 Years of Graphic Art from the Frank Raysor Collection
VMFA, 29 January - 22 May 2011
VMFA, 29 January - 22 May 2011
©artist or artist’s estate
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