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Total War, Totalitarianism and the Arts Chapter 34: Looking at Benton, Rivera, and Lange Humanities 103 Instructor Beth Camp Copyright, 1996 © Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc.

Benton, Rivera and Lange What do these three artists have in common? How would you describe the contribution of each? Do these slides help you define “social realism” given your reading of Chapter 34?

Thomas Hart Benton United States, 1889-1975 best-known muralist and regionalist painter of 1930s and early 1940s Sharply criticized for his rural views. His paintings were very popular, but critics called them vulgar Noted for his dramatic American themes What key elements do you see in the next works by Benton?

What mood is created by how Benton uses these elements: composition, content, black and white, and overall design in this lithograph? What is Benton trying to say?

Some say this painting foreshadows the coming storm of World War II. Do you agree or disagree? Next: The Ballad of the Jealous Lover, 1934

In what way could the images, colors or composition in this painting be considered uniquely American?

Benton Romance, 1931-1932 What does this painting suggest about rural American life? Next: Trail Riders , 1964-1965

Thomas Hart Benton Lithograph, Approaching Storm, 1938 Paintings: The Hailstorm, 1940 The Ballad of the Jealous Lover, 1934 Romance, 1931-1932 Trail Riders , 1964-1965 Do the images of these works reinforce uniquely American values?

Diego Rivera Mexico, 1886-1957 Inspired by native Mexican culture and European study Painted large murals dealing with Mexican life, history and social problems Also painted murals in United States celebrating socialism and industrial America What are his key images, themes?

Diego Rivera Night of the Rich, 1928. Fresco, North wall, Courtyard of the Fiestas, Ministry of Education, Mexico City Banner in Spanish: “All the hard/cruel money” What does this painting tell you about class differences in Mexico at this time?

Rivera: A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park, 1947-48, Alameda Hotel Next: Detail of mural’s center

Rivera is shown here, holding hands with a a skeleton, a symbol of death, popularized during the Mexican Revolution by Posada, his teacher, to show the need for struggle. Rivera painted personal memories with history in this mural, from despotic Mexican leaders, to Cortez, and the poor, who were once excluded from Alameda Park. What reaction do you think Rivera was striving for? What do you think of the scale of this painting?

Rivera Detail of right side, A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park, 1947-48 What mood does Rivera create with his drawings of the common people?

Rivera The Flower Carrier, 1935 What’s the hidden message? What does Rivera want you to think about the working conditions shown?

Dorothea Lange United States, 1895-1965 powerful documentary portraits of rural America during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Japanese Internment during World War II What key themes can you find in her work?

Dorothea Lange To live a visual life is an enormous undertaking, practically unattainable. But when the great photographs are produced, it will be down that road. But I have only touched it, just touched it. Migratory Cotton Picker, Eloy, Arizona, 1940, FSA Collection, Library of Congress

Dorothea Lange That's the first day I ever made a photograph actually on the street. I put it on the wall of my studio and customers, people whom I was making portraits of would come in and glance at them. And the only comment I ever got was, "What are you going to do with this kind of thing? I didn't know. But I knew that picture was on my wall, and I knew that it was worth doing." White Angel Breadline, San Francisco, Ca. 1933, Oakland Museum Collection

Dorothea Lange One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind. Next: Photographs of the Japanese Internment

Dorothea Lange The billboards that were up at the time I photographed. Savage, savage billboards. This is what we did. How did it happen? How could we?

Sources of �ݺ�ߣs... Mark Harden’s Artchive Museum of the City of San Francisco Library of Congress, “Women Come to the Front” Oakland Museum of California Virtual Diego Rivera Web Museum A Few Quotes from Dorothea Lange

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