Kansas Wheat Scene, Thomas Hart Benton

Exhibition Label: "This Land," Mar-2014, Kate Meyer Benton depicts an early International Harvester’s McCormick-Deering Farmall, a popular row-crop tractor sold in the 1920s and 1930s. Innovative equipment like the combine, powered by a tractor, enabled a single farmer to plant and cheaply harvest 500 acres of wheat with local assistance, whereas teams of workers and horses would have been required to do the same work in previous decades. These innovations, government subsidies and other aid for farmers, as well as the global market for wheat changed the nature of farming in the Great Plains from the subsistence farms of the 19th century to today’s industrialized agricultural landscape. Archive Label: Painted in 1953, this golden landscape featuring two Kansas harvesters attests to ongoing interest in regional imagery shared by Benton and the public. During the 1940s, Regionalism had been supplanted by a new style of non-figurative painting known as Abstract Expressionism. Benton rejected these new art world trends and continued to paint wholesome, nostalgic Midwestern scenes that he and many others enjoyed.