Students of Benton
FAYETTE, Mo. – The art of former students of the late Thomas Hart Benton
and historic photographs and postcards of Cooper and Howard Counties are
being featured in two exhibitions in galleries on the campus of Central
Methodist College in Fayette.
The first exhibition, "Benton: His Students," opened Jan. 19 and will
run through March 4 in The Ashby-Hodge Gallery of American Art. It
features works from the Gallery’s permanent collection. "Photography in
the Boonslick: Historical Photographs of Cooper and Howard Counties,"
opened Jan. 24 and will run through March 4 in the Stephens Gallery.
Gallery. Gallery hours are from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays,
Wednesdays and Thursdays. Special showings can be arranged by contacting
Dr. Joseph E. Geist, curator of galleries, at (660) 248-6304.
The art of seven of Benton’s students at the Kansas City Art Institute
during the 1930s and early 1940s is being featured in the Ashby-Hodge
exhibition. The art is part of the major collection given to Central
Methodist College by Dr. and Mrs. Lawrence D. Ashby of Pekin, Ill., in
1993 when the gallery opened. It will be the first public showing of
several of the art works.
Artists being featured are William F. Kautzman of Nashville, Tenn.;
Robert MacDonald Graham Jr. of Greenwood, Mo.; James Duard Marshall of
Kansas City, Mo.; Earl Fred Bennett of Agoura Hills, Calif.; the late
William Wind McKim of Independence, Mo.; Roger Medearis of San Marino,
Calif.; and Jackson Lee Nesbitt of Atlanta, Ga. McKim died in 1995.
Works to be shown include lithographs, graphite sketches, pen and ink
washes, oils and egg tempera on panel.
Along with John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood, Benton has long been
considered one of the major 20th century figures of the Midwest
Regionalism movement, and he influenced many of his students in this
representation of art. He was also considered as one of America’s
greatest muralists and remembered as a teacher of abstract expressionist
painter Jackson Pollock. Benton taught art at the Kansas City Art
Institute during the 1930s up to the outbreak of World War II. Born in
1889 in Neosho, Mo., Benton died in 1975 at his home in Kansas City, Mo.
The Stephens Gallery exhibition features more than 200 historic
photographs that give a glimpse of life in Howard and Cooper counties
during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The exhibition was put
together by the Boonslick Historical Society. Several organizations and
numerous individuals provided the photographs, said Dyer, who helped to
organize the Stephens show.
"The photos in the exhibition are copies of originals," says Boonslick
historian Robert L. Dyer of Boonville, who helped organize the
"Photography in the Boonslick" show. In addition to the main body of the
display, there are historic postcards of Boonville, Cooper County, New
Franklin, Fayette and Glasgow and historic photographs relating to the
Central Methodist College campus. "There are also examples of work of
portrait photographers in Cooper County in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries," Dyer notes, adding that there is a special display of
portrait photography by James Macurdy, who had a studio in Boonville
between 1870 and 1890.
Among the sources of historic photos in the show are the State
Historical Society of Missouri, Mid-Missouri Printing of Boonville, Ric
Mar Decorating of Boonville, Friends of Historic Boonville, Glasgow
Community Museum, Friends of Arrow Rock and Rocheport Historical Museum.
Historic photographs and postcards of the Boonville area also were
loaned from the private collections of Gladys and Paul Darby, Robert L.
Dyer, James Higbie, Sam Jewett, Wayne Lammers, Terry Smith and John
Vanderhoff; of the Glasgow area, from Jerome and Sue Ann Meyer; of the
Fayette-Armstrong area, from Cindy Bowen, Denny Davis, Dale Graham and
Henry Summers. Artist Florence Chesnutt Friedrichs of Pilot Grove and
Jeanette Heaton of New Lebanon provided photographs of Cooper County.
