CMHOF Exhibit Celebrates 50th Anniversary Of Thomas Hart Benton Mural

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Photo: Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has opened a new exhibit celebrating the 50th anniversary of the commissioning of Thomas Hart Benton’s iconic painting “The Sources of Country Music,“ which hangs as the centerpiece in the museum’s Hall of Fame Rotunda.

The exhibit, “An American Masterwork: Thomas Hart Benton’s ‘Sources of Country Music’ at 50,” explores Benton’s artistic process in creating the mural, which was his final painting.

Benton’s sketches, drawings, preliminary paintings and his plasticine clay maquette (three-dimensional model), which were created as part of his process of realizing “The Sources of Country Music” mural, are also included in the exhibit along with a 1975 video of Benton speaking about the painting.

Benton was a leader in American Regionalism, a modern art movement that featured realistic scenes of the nation’s rural and small-town heartland. He agreed to paint the mural for the museum in December 1973. Channeling his lifelong passion for country music, Benton created a masterwork that depicts the wide-ranging cultural contributors to the musical genre. He passed away on Jan. 19, 1975 in his Kansas City studio, having placed the finishing touches on this museum commission. The completed six-foot by 10-foot mural is a synthesis of the artist, country music subject matter and the museum’s educational mission.

This spring, the museum will also host a 90-minute program on “The Sources of Country Music” in partnership with the Frist Art Museum. Panelists will provide interpretation of the painting and discuss Benton’s technique and background as well as the story behind the commissioning of the mural for the museum.

The exhibit is now open through January 2025, and is included with museum admission. For more information, click here.

Lorie Hollabaugh
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