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Ben Hall, Elek Horvath, Anne Pope, Kyle Young
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Mark Scala, Dr. Seth Feman
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John Marks, Colleen Lelis
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Molly Shehan, Mike Milom
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Chuck Miller, Mary Roskilly, Seab Tuck
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David Conrad, Don and Stacey Schlitz, Lisa Purcell
On January 31, guests gathered together at the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum for the opening of its newest exhibition, An American Masterwork: Thomas Hart Benton’s “Sources of Country Music” at 50.
The exhibit explores Benton’s artistic process in creating his final painting, “The Sources of Country Music,” which hangs as the centerpiece in the museum’s Hall of Fame Rotunda. The exhibit, which is included with museum admission, is now open and runs through January 2025.
The exhibit includes Benton’s sketches, drawings, preliminary paintings, and his clay maquette (three-dimensional model), which were created as part of his process of realizing the “Sources of Country Music” mural. It also features a 1975 video of Benton speaking about the painting. Benton was a leader in American Regionalism, a modern art movement that featured realistic scenes of the nation’s rural and small-town heartland. He agreed to paint the “Sources of Country Music” mural for the museum in December 1973. Channeling his lifelong passion for country music, Benton created a masterwork that depicts the wide-ranging cultural contributors to the musical genre. Benton died on January 19, 1975, in his Kansas City studio, having placed the finishing touches on this museum commission and while he sat evaluating his work. The completed six-foot by ten-foot mural is a synthesis of the artist, country music subject matter and the museum’s educational mission.