Persephone 1939

Thomas Hart Benton’s Persephone unfolds with sharp, graphic shapes in a dance of observation and memory. I can imagine the act of painting itself, how it might have emerged through trial, error, and intuition. You know, I sympathize with him. Look at that landscape. Was he thinking about the story of Persephone, the shift from innocence to experience, like a kind of before and after? He might have been thinking about surface and form, about how much detail to include before it all falls apart. The whole painting has a surreal edge, a folk art vibe. That gaze of Hades is hard to stomach! His eyes fixed on Persephone, and the hard angles of his face. It's a bold move, setting that up against the idealized form of the woman. I wonder if Benton knew the discomfort he was creating? Painters are always in conversation across time. We look at each other’s work and we learn. We steal! We experiment. Painting is such an embodied expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty. There are so many interpretations, so many ways to see.