Thomas Hart Benton was commissioned to paint murals depicting Indiana history for the Indiana state pavilion at the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. The completed Indiana murals were twelve feet high and over two hundred feet long, wrapping around the entire exhibition hall. Visitors to the Indiana pavilion experienced Indiana’s history through a continuous stream of narrative imitating the flow of time. After several years of storage following the fair, the panels were given to Indiana University in Bloomington in 1938, where they currently reside. While most scholarship has focused on the original message and context of the Indiana murals, the murals’ nearly seventy-five year display at IU necessitates a more thorough analysis of the murals at the university, with specific attention to the contextual changes since the time of the fair. The relocation of the murals to IU and the resultant restructuring of their historical narrative have altered perceptions of their imagery and attributed new meanings to the historical scenes Benton depicted. The aim of this study it to better understand the complex nature of Benton’s Indiana murals by exploring the ways in which changes in context result in alteration of the original message and the viewers’ reception of the murals. My research explores the murals’ role in university politics, reactions to the murals by their university audience, and recent controversies. A study of the Indiana murals in terms of the fluidity of historical construction and the effects of collective memory on their reception is significant because it leads to a greater understanding of the present’s cultural ideals, and begins to explain why the murals continue to elicit such strong reactions from viewers—whether to protest against their presence at the university or promote their preservation for the benefit of future generations. / Art History
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TEMPLE/oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/2958 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Grogan, Elise Kathleen |
| Contributors | Silk, Gerald, Nelson, Adele |
| Publisher | Temple University. Libraries |
| Source Sets | Temple University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 164 pages |
| Rights | IN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/2940, Theses and Dissertations |
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