A Social History of the State of Missouri (detail) - Beer Making 1936

Curator: It feels like stepping into a hazy dream, almost a rowdy tavern scene sprung to life from some old folk tale. Editor: You’re right, it certainly has that fantastical element. What we are looking at is actually a detail from Thomas Hart Benton's "A Social History of the State of Missouri," painted in 1936. It’s an oil-on-canvas mural, and this specific section focuses on beer making. Curator: Beer making, huh? I'm getting definite 'yeasty' vibes. You know, the light and shadow almost create a stage, don't they? Each figure posed like they are ready to raise their mugs at a performance, to celebrate the brewery production itself. Editor: Precisely! Benton was quite invested in showcasing the everyday labor that shaped Missouri's identity. Think of it in the broader context of Regionalism, an artistic movement that deliberately moved away from European abstraction. He shows industry: raw materials transformed through the combined effort and toil of working class folk, each element contributing to the creation and distribution of alcoholic beverages, not without hints of their eventual enjoyment and imbibing by the workers themselves. Curator: There’s almost something unsettling about it, though. Everyone looks so intensely involved, their faces… lined. Even the drinking worker with his huge tankard can only half smile. All this focus on work, production. Where’s the simple joy? Is Benton showing us how work overtakes us? Editor: Well, Benton never shied away from showing the gritty realities of life, labor was rarely romantic back then. Perhaps it's less a question of lost joy, and more a nod to the dignity found in the tangible result of their efforts. But his visual language certainly presents that effort with palpable muscular tension. Look at how he paints the machinery and buildings in the background, monolithic and geometric, so they reflect not just labor, but American social complexity. Curator: Hmmm...complexity brewed to perfection? I'll drink to that. There is also just so much going on – workers laboring, drinking… It’s so…dense, somehow, full of narrative layers, really. Editor: I find that idea apt, given how this mural compresses time and space within one pictorial field, interweaving history, labor, and perhaps a healthy dose of social commentary. I come away reminded of how much intention is infused even in art depicting labor and commodity production. Curator: And how little it sometimes betrays. Let’s just say I won’t be looking at my next pint of beer in the same way again.