: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art will celebrate the art of the
Midwest with the exhibition "Bingham to Benton: The Midwest as
Muse" February 5 to July 31.
The Midwest has inspired artists for two centuries, and its
landscape and ways of life have played an important role in
shaping the image of America.
"Bingham to Benton: The Midwest as Muse" pays homage to the
artistic accomplishments of Missouri's best-know painters, George
Caleb Bingham and Thomas Hart Benton. The body of works on view
attests to the region's imprint on a spectrum of artists who
worked in the nation's heartland through World War II.
George Caleb Bingham was among the first American artists to live
west of the Mississippi River, and with his scenes of frontier
life, he earned the distinction of "the Missouri artist" by the
mid Nineteenth Century, and representing this phase of Bingham's
career is "The Jolly Flatboatmen," on loan from the Richard and
Jane Manoogian Collection.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is at 4525 Oak Street. For
information, 816-751-1278 or www.nelson-atkins.org.
