Voir Ken Burns: America - Episode 5

His paintings were burly, energetic, and as uncompromising as the midwestern landscapes and laborers they celebrated. "Thomas Hart Benton" depicts a self-reliant America emerging from the Depression. Today his works hang in museums. During his life, Benton preferred to hang them in saloons, where ordinary people could appreciate them in congenial settings.  A fierce defender of the aesthetics of realism, Benton took on the art establishment and railed against abstraction. His reputation suffered as his star rose, fell and rose once again. While Benton failed to stem the tide of modernism, his influence can be seen in the works of his master student, Jackson Pollack.  Ken Burns uses long-lost footage, penetrating interviews and the magnificent art of Benton to tell the bittersweet story of an extraordinary American artist who became emblematic of the price all artists must pay to remain true to their talents and themselves.