PBS
 
   
  Thomas Hart Benton  
 


His paintings were burly. Energetic. And as uncompromising as the midwestern landscapes and laborers they celebrated. Thomas Hart Benton was a self-reliant America emerging from the Depression. Today his works hang in museums. During his life, Benton preferred to hang them in saloons, where ordinary people could appreciate them in congenial settings.

A fierce defender of the aesthetics of realism, Benton took on the art establishment and railed against abstraction. His reputation suffered as his star rose, fell and rose once again. Thomas Hart Benton tells the bittersweet story of a great American artist who became emblematic of the price all artists must pay to remain true to their talents and themselves.

A Film By
KEN BURNS

Written By
GEOFFREY C. WARD

Produced By
KEN BURNS
JULIE DUNFEY

Edited By
DONNA MARINO

Cinematography
KEN BURNS
BUDDY SQUIRES

Narrated By
JASON ROBARDS

KEN BURNS AMERICAN STORIES SERIES UNDERWRITERS
General Motors Corporation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS

THOMAS HART BENTON ORIGINAL PRODUCTION UNDERWRITERS
Equitable Financial Companies
The National Endowment for the Humanities
Jules and Doris Stein Foundation
Gerald and Virginia Oppenheimer

Access more credits

Original Broadcast November 1989

Film Honors:
• CINE Golden Eagle Award, 1988
• Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival, 1989
• Gold Apple Award, National Educational Film Festival, 1989
• First Prize, Baltimore Film Competition, 1989
• World Premiere Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, April 13, 1989

  
  Purchase Thomas Hart Benton products
Learn more about Thomas Hart Benton