Grandfather’s influence found in Joplin mural by Anthony Benton Gude: w/video and slide show

By Scott Meeker

smeeker@joplinglobe.com

FRANKFORT, Kan. — The family farm is in the Flint Hills of northeast Kansas, nestled several miles off the highway via a series of dirt and gravel roads.

Anthony Benton Gude is still technically a farmer — raising livestock for organic beef — though his artistic endeavors have gradually become his primary focus.

On a sunny April afternoon, he ambled from the house to greet visitors and lead the way to his nearby studio. Designed by the artist in the late 1990s, it includes a raised glass cupola at its center. The midafternoon sun high overhead filled the studio with a natural glow that made the already vivid colors on a recently completed project stand out even more.

The 5 1/2- by 14-foot mural takes up a large portion of the studio. After five months of work, Gude completed it in March and signed his name to the bottom right corner of the canvas.

“Route 66, Joplin, Missouri” depicts a street scene of downtown Joplin and incorporates elements of the 1940s and ’50s, with familiar faces and classic cars visible along the road that leads into the setting sun.

One of those people depicted in the mural leans back causally against the counter of a soda fountain, taking it all in.

Gude said he hadn’t intended for his grandfather — renowned regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton — to occupy such a prominent spot in the mural.

“For some reason, Tom just wanted to be that character,” said Gude. “I couldn’t not make it him.”

On Thursday, Gude will bring the Route 66-themed mural to Joplin for its unveiling. A spot is designated for it on the first floor of City Hall next to another mural and its iconic depiction of Joplin’s past.

‘At the Turn of the Century’

Thomas Hart Benton’s “Joplin at the Turn of the Century, 1896-1906” makes a striking impression for those walking through Joplin’s City Hall.

The mural is displayed prominently over the elevators on the first floor. On the nearby mezzanine, Benton’s sketches and other materials relating to the mural are exhibited, along with other works by the acclaimed artist.

Benton was commissioned to paint a mural for Joplin’s centennial celebration in 1973, thanks in no small part to the efforts of the late Joplin attorney Henry Warten and his wife, Mary, who was the former chairwoman of the Joplin Council on the Arts.

The Neosho native, then 82 years old, agreed to come out of retirement and paint the autobiographical work.

In a letter to Mary Curtis Warten in 1971, Benton said the subject matter and time period appealed to him.

“(It) offers materials of great interest to me, because a great deal of it was directly experienced in my youth,” Benton wrote.

It was commissioned for $60,000 and was unveiled in March 1973 at what then was the Municipal Building, 303 E. Third St. Measuring 5 1/2 by 14 feet and weighing 700 pounds, it offers scenes of everyday life from the time period it depicts — from miners to gamblers, and even a young Benton himself. He had honed his skills as a budding artist while working briefly as a cartoonist for the Joplin American.

“Joplin at the Turn of the Century” would mark one of Benton’s final works. He painted just one more mural — for the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tenn. — before his death on Jan. 19, 1975.

The Joplin mural remained at the Municipal Building until 2005, when City Hall was relocated to the five-story Newman Building at 602 S. Main St. Moving the mural was a painstaking procedure, with a representative from the Upper Midwest Conservation Association at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts on hand to clean it and make sure it made a smooth transition to its new home.

The last years

Gude, 46, was raised primarily on the East Coast and spent nearly every summer at his grandfather’s home on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

“I would mess around in his studio and watch him paint, and try not to touch his clay models, which was always tempting,” Gude said. “He was humorous and very friendly, and definitely enjoying himself in his 80s, the last years that I knew him.

“He had a routine. He would get up at dawn and was at work before we would wake up. He would come in for lunch, have a nap and then go back to his studio to work until later in the afternoon. Then he’d come down to have a martini or bourbon.”

Gude said his grandfather remained active in other pursuits besides art. There was always a project under way on the island for which he might recruit his grandchildren to help.

“He was building a sea wall in the last few years of his life,” Gude said. Benton wanted to stop the water from eroding away the shoreline.

“In those days, you could build a sea wall without going through any environmental permitting process,” Gude said. “We would haul stones, and he would mortar them in. It was quite an impressive wall for an octogenarian to be building.”

Benton and his wife, Rita, were extremely encouraging of Gude when he began to show an interest in art.

“I was drawing, painting and messing around with art since the time I could hold a crayon,” he said.

Though he never saw the completed work until visiting Joplin last year, Gude said he and his sister, Daria, modeled for the children depicted riding in the back of the wagon in “Joplin at the Turn of the Century.”

“I remember that he had me sit in a chair and hold my hands on the back while he did sketches,” he said.

Budding muralist

Gude, who was home-schooled, got his GED and then worked a variety of odd jobs before deciding to attend art school.

His first commissioned mural came in 1996, when he was asked to paint the history of St. Joseph, Mo., for the new Frontier Casino.

“I had never done anything bigger than a 4-by-6 painting,” he said. “The people building the casino contacted me because they thought I knew how to do murals.

“I had to come up with a process because they had a site, they had a plan, but no building. Traditionally, murals have always been painted on walls of buildings, which was impractical because I had to have four panels completed for the grand opening but I couldn’t be in there working because there wasn’t even a building to be working in.”

By necessity, Gude came up with the mural process that he still uses today. He built a plywood panel and stretched a canvas over it, then secured it in place. When completed, the mural can be taken down, then rolled up to be transported and reassembled elsewhere.

After the St. Joseph project, he was commissioned to do other murals, including works depicting Kansas City in the 1920s and ’30s for the Marriott Hotel in Kansas City, and murals for Kansas City Southern Railway and Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan.

Two years ago, he completed a mural commissioned by the Newton County Thomas Hart Benton Festival Council that depicts the history of Neosho. That mural hangs in Neosho City Hall.

‘We were in awe’

After being organized about a year ago, the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce’s cultural affairs committee set as its mission statement a desire to “encourage the growth and development of a creative community that integrates business, education and the arts,” said committee co-chairwoman Sharon Beshore.

Putting art in public places was one of the committee’s goals, and members decided to contact Gude to see if he would be interested in creating a new work.

Beshore said Gude was excited about the chance to create a mural that would complement his grandfather’s.

“(Joplin City Hall) will be the only place where one of Anthony Benton Gude’s murals and one of Thomas Hart Benton’s are displayed together in the same location,” Beshore said. “That’s historic for Joplin, and we feel like it will be a draw for tourism downtown.”

Becky Brill, co-chairwoman of the committee with Beshore, said Gude traveled to Joplin last spring to meet with committee members and talk about ideas for the mural. The idea for setting it on historic Route 66 seemed natural, she said.

“It was easy for us to wrap our heads around, and it will be an easy thing for parents to come in and talk to their kids about,” Brill said. “There are so few things in Joplin that say Route 66 anymore.”

Gude created a rough sketch of how he envisioned the mural and sent it to the committee for review. Brill said the artist exceeded the group’s expectations.

“He sent us a draft of it, and we were in awe,” she said. “We just looked at it and thought, ‘That’s perfect.’”

Beshore said she began fundraising for the project last year, and donations are still being accepted. The outpouring of support for the new mural has been inspiring, she said.

“People were very excited about it,” said Beshore. “We’ve received money through donations from private businesses and individuals, and the chamber and city have kicked in some money. Any extra money we raise will go toward our next public art project.”

Though committee members said Gude did not want to disclose the amount of his commission, Brill said it was less than he might otherwise have charged, thanks to the project’s family connection.

‘It’s a great honor’

The mix of the old and the new can be seen throughout Gude’s studio.

It can be found near the new Route 66 mural, where an easel has a copy of “Joplin at the Turn of the Century” taped to it.

It’s there on a nearby shelf filled with Benton’s old art reference books — among them collections of Monet, Rembrandt and artists of the Old West — which is topped by a stereo and a stack of CDs by artists such as Leonard Cohen, U2 and the Wallflowers.

A nearby table is covered with the oil paints and brushes Gude uses, as well as tools that his grandfather made use of, such as a demagnifying glass that allows an artist to get a different perspective of his work.

And it’s there in the artwork itself. Benton’s influence shines through in the use of bold colors and style, but it’s obvious that Gude has forged his own distinct identity as an artist.

Gude said that when he was contacted by the chamber committee last spring to create a new Joplin mural for City Hall, he jumped at the chance to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps.

“I think it’s a great honor to have it (displayed) in the same building, let alone the same room,” said Gude. “I’m proud to have the opportunity.”

He began painting the mural in November, spending six to eight hours a day crafting it.

In addition to the depiction of his grandfather at a soda fountain, the mural features other figures from Joplin’s history, including baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle and Lena Beal, the city’s first female mayor. Gude said he used a lot of historical photographs of Joplin buildings and people to serve as a guide.

Sitting across the studio from “Route 66, Joplin, Missouri” and studying the finished work, Gude said he is happy with how it turned out.

“It’s never exactly what you had in your head,” he said. “There was a tremendous amount of painstaking detail with the perspectives, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to deal with the light situation, the shadows and the reflections.

“But there are elements of the mural that I like even better than in my original concept for it.”

Unveiling

“Route 66, Joplin, Missouri” will be unveiled at 5:30 p.m. Thursday on the first floor of City Hall, 602 S. Main St. The date marks what would have been Thomas Hart Benton’s 121st birthday. The date is also the 100th anniversary of the Newman Building, which houses city offices.

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