Self-Portrait

Benton’s self-portrait does not glamorize— he shows himself with wrinkles and a paunch. A self-portrait from thirty-eight years earlier from the cover of TIME magazine, shows a younger and more virile figure. Benton, along with Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, was a leader of Regionalism, a 1930s art movement focused on depicting the rural Midwest. Benton taught at the Kansas City Art Institute, influencing many regional artists.