Mass Media

Benton's style, which has something of a cartoon quality, as well as a whiff of surrealism, depicted country life of fact and fiction. In "Haystack," from 1938, Benton captures a dramatic scene. In the left foreground, providing viewers with an entry into the picture, a farmhand works a pump to fill a bucket with water. In the mid-ground, in shadows, is another hand leading a horse out of a barn, and in the background, a haystack is consumed by fire. The drafting is exquisite and finely detailed, and though it was done in black ink on cream-colored paper, many surprising effects are achieved, such as the blank space surrounding the silhouetted horse that suggests the brightness of the raging fire.

Other highly regarded artists are also part of Good Impressions. Opposite the Bentons is a tremendous Grant Wood and, in other parts of the show, important prints by Edward Hopper, Reginald Marsh, Rockwell Kent, Paul Cadmus and John Steuart Curry, capturing in fine art the everyday life of America of that time. These regionalists were widely influential during their careers and afterward, during a revival in interest in their work. It could also be said that they helped spark abstraction — but mainly as a reaction to their work rather than a direct influence; Pollock, remember, said that Benton, his most significant teacher, had taught his star student how not to paint.

Nonetheless, in the Singer show, it's possible to see how the regionalist ethos was bent toward abstraction by some of the artists in the movement itself. A good case in point is Denver's own Vance Kirkland. In "Ruins of Central City," from 1935, the scene has a planar and thereby cubist sense of space. And the overall feeling of alienation symbolized by the dead tree at the center refers to surrealism.

Speaking of Kirkland, a gap in the Mayers' collection, as displayed in this show, is the lack of Colorado artists — other than Kirkland and a few others.

Zalkind has noted how well-received the show has been and believes it's because this kind of work is so viewer-friendly. Viewers don't need to be steeped in theories to understand these pictures. They have recognizable subjects, mostly people, and the use of narrative in the form of metaphors and even parables that underlie the compositions — dead trees taking on psychological meanings — are pretty simple and straightforward.

I've noted it before but will point it out again: Even with a very modest facility — even with the installation of new, state-of-the-art lighting — and with a woefully small exhibition budget, Zalkind somehow pulls together some of the best art exhibits in town. Needless to say, he's done it again with American Master Prints.