After Many Springs : Regionalism, Modernism, and the Midwest

After Many Springsis the title of a Thomas Hart Benton painting that evokes nostalgia for a fertile, creative time gone by. This bold new booktaking the name of this work by Bentonexamines the intersections between Regionalist and Modernist paintings, photography, and film during the Great Depression, a period when the two approaches to art making were perhaps at their zenith. It is commonly believed that Regionalist artists Benton, John Steuart Curry, and Grant Wood reacted to the economic and social devastation of their era by harking back in tranquil bucolic paintings to a departed utopia. However, this volume compares their work to that of photographers such as Dorothea Lange and Ben Shahn and filmmakers such as Josef von Sternbergall of whom documented the desolation of the Depressionand finds surprising commonalities. The book also notes intriguing connections between Regionalist artists and Modernists Jackson Pollock and Philip Guston, countering prevailing assumptions that Regionalism was an anathema to these New York School painters and showing their shared fascination with the Midwest.

Jeff Fleming is director of the Des Moines Art Center.