dieser beitrag wurde verfasst in: englisch (eng/en)
künstler: Thomas Hart Benton
titel: The Arts of Life in America: Arts of the City, Arts of the West, Arts of the South, Indian Arts, Intellectual Business and Political Ballyhoo (and others)
jahr: 1932
+: The panels were designed for the library in the apartment of Juliana Force, the then director of the Whitney Museum which was located in several residential houses in 8th street. She accepted to be reimbursed by the mural for a loan of $3000 she gave the Bentons who were in financial difficulties in 1932. Benton got some surplus $1600 for a trip to the south of the USA as preparation for the part 'Arts of the South'.
In 1953, the Whitney Museum was not lucky anymore about the work of an artist seen as backward and outdated, and accepted gladly an offer by Sanford Low, the director of the New Britain Museum, to take over the mural for $500 and coverage of all costs of the removal and transport (about $3000).
The work, now estimated to be 10 million $ worth, returned to the Whitney for an exhibition in 2004.