Tuesday Art ATTACK- Thomas Hart Benton “Menemsha Hurricane"

American artist Thomas Hart Benton was born in Neosho, Missouri in 1889. He was one of most important artists of the Regionalism movement that came out of the Great Depression. This work is titled "Menemsha Hurricane" and was completed in oil in 1954. The painting depicts 1954’s Hurricane Edna which highly damaged the coast of New England. Menemsha, a small fishing village on Martha's Vineyard, was hit especially hard. The winds got as high as 120 mph during the storm and there was severe flooding. Benton summered on Martha Vineyard and painted many paintings of the area.