Evening star., 1961-02-19
BY HARRY F. ROSENTHAL
Annnciated Press staff Xriter

Asooclateo tTeSS 6ta1I writer
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - The
artist looked down from his 16-
foot scaffold and said:
''If you want to help paint, come
up here"
= by golly, I will" replied the
historian. And with agility that
belied his rs years. former Presi-
dent Harry s. Truman swung up
beside Artist Thomas Hart Benton
to add q bit of blue to the western
sky.
To the delight of visitors, there
were two of Missouri's most
famous citizens working side by
side on what both regard as an
!. important recording Of history
the newest Benton mural: "Inde.
pendence and the Opening Of the
c West"
- Aside from this little by-play.
the former President-no painter
did little actual work on the
10 by 50 foot mural that graces
the entrance Of the Harry S. Tru-
man Library. repository Of Tru-
man memorabilia.
But we talked about it ahead
Of time so that I knew what he
wanted me to say in it," Mr.. Ben
ton unused. "At first he knew more
about the subject than I did. Now
I know more about 1t than he
does" -
The mural has become Mr..
Truman's favorite showpiece. He
points to it often in his impromptu
lectures to visiting statesmen and
: tourists.
Continents Destiny
Captured in startling detail are
the chief elements Of what Mr..
Benton calls "our continental deS-
tiny" They are the Plains In
dians, the hunter and trapper,
the French voyageur and the per-
manent settler who finally diSpos-
sessed the Indians.
When Mr.. Benton paints a
Pawnee Indian, what results is
not just any Indian. 1t is a
Pawnee. Right down from the
feather headband. to the war
paint, to the bow and arrow, the
lasso around the waist and the
beadwork in the moccasin.
For sketches Of Pawnee faces
Mr.. Benton went to Oklahoma
and Colorado. But he found the
older Indian males today are not
as lean and muscular as their
counterparts a century ago and
went to Miami to have two young
Indian athletes pose for the bod
teS.
Over nearly a two-year period,
Mr.. Benton made individual draw
ings-hundreds Of them-for every
natural and man-made object in
the mural. "A yucca plant is not
simply any yucca plant. In some
parts Of the country 1t has fat
leaves. In colorado it Is spiny. If
. I painted fat yucca I'd have to
answer to a lot of WesternerS
for 1t"
At II, the white-maned Benton,
usually dressed in flannel shirt
and corduroy trousers, still has
the same drive and energy that
characterized his fight for his
kind of art in the 1930s. He chews
on q dead cigar because his wife
says he smokes too much and
works only in good light to spare
his eyes but his voice and ideas
are flinty as ever.
Benton's Ancestry
Mr.. Benton comes from a line
Of fighters. His great-uncle was
one Of Missouri's first two Sen
ators when it became a State in
1920. That Thomas Hart Benton
served 80 years in the Senate and
held the Washington spotlight in
competition with such men as
jackson, Webster, Van Buren,
and Clay. The painters father,
Maecenas Benton, served five
terms in the United States House
Of Representatives after discharge
as a colonel in the Confederate
Army and political prominence as
United States Attorney.
Mr.. Benton's career bloomed in
the late '20s and sos when-with
Grant Wood Of Iowa and John
Steuart Curry Of Kansas-he led
the regionalist movement In art.
His battles with museum direc-
tors, art critics and the critical