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American muralist and painter Thomas Hart Benton was an influential Regionalist painter who avidly rejected abstraction and Modernism, and was eventually championed by populist right wing politics. The works for which he is best known focus on rural life in America, and the industrial laborer, who was depicted as the cultural backbone of the country and of Regionalism. Although Benton experimented with Modernist techniques and modes, his style became increasingly narrative and realist as he continually abandoned these tactics. The Regionalist movement and Benton’s career garnered its greatest popularity during the Great Depression, as it projected a reassuring image of America’s heartland which viewers were drawn to as a means to cope during the national crisis.

Missouri, USA