Thomas Hart Benton was not only a famous American painter, but a notable writer, musician, and spokesman for American country music. While best known as the leader of the "American Scene" movement of the 1930s, he also had a notable early career as a Modernist in Paris and was the teacher of the abstract painter Jackson Pollock. Join Henry Adams, author of the principal biography of Benton, as he reviews the trajectory of Benton's life, as he ranged from Gertrude Stein's Paris to the highways of the American West.

Henry Adams is the author of Thomas Hart Benton: An American Original (Knopf, 1989) as well as the recent book Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock (Bloomsbury Press, October 2009).

Location: Frist Center (Directions)