Week 22: Jun. 2, 2024

Two pieces: The Benton Farm, Thomas Hart Benton, American, 1973, Oil on canvas;  Armchair, Frank Lloyd Wright, American, 1940, Cypress and plywood

Midcentury midwestern…

The works of both Thomas Hart Benton and Frank Lloyd Wright are at once so exceptional and so comfortable that I am always drawn to them. Each of them has a powerful presence in the west/midwest where I have spent so much of my life, as well. These two pieces were created 30 years apart but work together beautifully, and once again create a mini-setting that invites you to ‘sit a spell’ but in the most sophisticated way.

Again I found myself struggling to manage a photo that wasn’t upstaged by a sign or electrical outlet in the background. It will be miraculous if I make it through this one-year diary of the Nelson without getting in trouble for rearranging the furniture! I would have liked to show the chair more from the front but it was placed near a door way, signage, and other challenges. So instead, I struggled to determine how to use the line created by the front railing to help the photo. I liked how this angle turned out.