KCRag Forum

KC is lucky today. I can't wait to see these (esp the North End) in person. Pryor described himself as Bentonesque.



https://nelson-atkins.org/five-leonard- ... useum-art/

Sidenote: I was lucky enough to grow up in Valentine in the 60s. Thomas Hart Benton lived just a few houses over from us and I'd often wander over to his studio where he would tolerate kids like me and even show us a few things. When he left town for the summer each year, he would hand out his paintings to his neighbors to keep them safe while he was gone. At times we'd have up to 5 or 6 in the house. Sadly, no extra money to buy them but the neighbor 2 houses down bought as many as he could get a hold of.

Benton passed in 1975 and sometime in 80 or 81, I skipped school with a few friends and took them to Benton's house. Amazingly at that time, we were able to walk right into his studio and see all of his artist materials just sitting there as if he left to go get a coffee. The devil on my shoulder kept telling me to steal some brushes but thankfully the angel on the other side won out that day.

Anachronistic with the river in the view. Artist must have thought the river would look better than the freeway.