It’s a big year for Thomas Hart Benton at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. In advance of its big fall show, American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood (Oct.10-Jan. 3), the museum recently placed the artist’s painting, Utah Highlands, on view in the American Wing.
The 1954 gouache on paper landscape belongs to Shawnee Mission North High School, which received the work in 1957 as a gift from students. A 2008 appraisal led the school to conclude that the painting was too valuable to display on its premises, and school district officials reached an agreement with the Nelson to place the work on long-term loan at the museum.
Benton’s compositions played an influential role in the development of American modernism.
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