Thomas Hart Benton
Bubbles
1913-1916
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Thomas Hart Benton
Bubbles
1913-1916
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, Unframed: 22 x 17 in. (55.9 x 43.2 cm)
Framed: 24 1/2 x 19 1/2 in. (62.2 x 49.5 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of H.L. Mencken, Baltimore
Object Number
1947.317
Donated by Baltimore-born cultural commentator H. L. Mencken, Bubbles records Thomas Hart Benton’s interest in “Synchromism” (literally, “with color”), an experimental form of painting that equated color with sound. Synchromism encouraged painters to compose color harmonies “scientifically,” just as musicians compose music by building sounds into harmonious chords. Benton encountered the movement in Paris and gave it a try. The original frame suggests that he knew about the radical green picture frames used by impressionists Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt. When later taste dictated that Bubbles be housed in a more conventional manner, the green molding was covered over with linen and used as a liner rather than being discarded. The original frame is painted a muted teal blue, a color that also appears in the picture itself. When placed within this simple frame, Bubbles is transformed: the entire work looks bigger because the color field has been enlarged.
Museum of Modern Art, New York, circulating exhibitions department, "Synchromism and Color Principles in American Painting 1910-1930", January 1967 - June 1968, checklist no. 1.
Whitney Museum of American Art, "Synchromism and American Color Abstraction 1910-1925", January 24 - March 26, 1978. Circulated to Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Des Moines Art Center; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Everson Museum of Art; Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, through March 1979.
The Tate Gallery, London, "Abstraction: Towards a New Art", February 5 - April 14, 1980, no. 423.
Baltimore Museum of Art, "20th Century Painting from the Museum's Collection", March 14 - April 5, 1981.
Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO, "Thomas Hart Benton: An American Original", April 15 - June 18, 1989; DIA, August 4 - October 15, 1989; Whitney Museum of American Art, November 16, 1989 - February 12, 1990; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, April 26 - July 22, 1990.
Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, "Musical Analogies: Kandinsky and his Contemporaries", February 11 - May 25, 2003.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "American Modernism from the Collection," 6/25/2003-
Javier Arnaldo. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, "Analogias Musicales: Kandinsky Y Sus Contemporaneos," Feb. 11 - May 25, 2003. p. 225, ill.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, "Orphism in Paris and Beyond, 1910 - 1930", November 8, 2024 - March 9, 2025.
Whitney Museum of American Art, "Synchromism and American Color Abstraction 1910-1925", January 24 - March 26, 1978. Circulated to Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Des Moines Art Center; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Everson Museum of Art; Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, through March 1979.
The Tate Gallery, London, "Abstraction: Towards a New Art", February 5 - April 14, 1980, no. 423.
Baltimore Museum of Art, "20th Century Painting from the Museum's Collection", March 14 - April 5, 1981.
Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO, "Thomas Hart Benton: An American Original", April 15 - June 18, 1989; DIA, August 4 - October 15, 1989; Whitney Museum of American Art, November 16, 1989 - February 12, 1990; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, April 26 - July 22, 1990.
Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, "Musical Analogies: Kandinsky and his Contemporaries", February 11 - May 25, 2003.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "American Modernism from the Collection," 6/25/2003-
Javier Arnaldo. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, "Analogias Musicales: Kandinsky Y Sus Contemporaneos," Feb. 11 - May 25, 2003. p. 225, ill.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, "Orphism in Paris and Beyond, 1910 - 1930", November 8, 2024 - March 9, 2025.
Thomas Hart Benton, "An Artist in America", New York, 1937, p. 39.
Gail Levin, "The Tradition of the Heroic Figute in Synchronist Abstraction", Arts Magazine, June 1977, pp. 138-142, ill. p. 141.
Gail Levin, "Synchronism and American Color Abstraction 1910-1925", New York: George Braziller in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1978, p. 137. ill. pl. 22.
Peter Vergo et. all., "Abstraction: Toward a New Art, Painting 1910-20", London" The Tate Gallery, 1980, no. 423, p. 116, ill. p. 117.
Avis Berman, "Thomas Hart Benton: American Images," Arts and Antiques, September-October 1981, pp. 52-59, ill. p. 55.
Henry Adams, "Thomas Hart Benton", Borzoi Book, Knopf, New York, 1989. Credits 79.
Antiques & Fine Art, November/December 1990, US/Canada, p. 100, ill.
Fronia W. Simpson and Christi Stanforth, "Color, Myth and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchronism", 2001, p. 46, ill. 44.
Javier Arnaldo, "Analogías Musicales: Kandinsky y sus Contemporáneos," Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2003, cat. 153, ill. p. 225.
"Framing: The Single Most Transforming Act," BMA Today, Winter 2008-2009, pp. 11, 13, ill. p. 13.
"After Many Springs: Regionalism, Modernism & the Midwest", Yale University Press for the Des Moines Art Center, 2009, ill. 11.
Leo G. Mazow, "Thomas Hart Benton and the American Sound," (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012), p. 53-55, ill p.54.
Schaefer, Barbara and Anita Hachmann, eds. "Es War Einmal In Amerika: 300 Jahre US-Amerikanische Kunst." Köln: Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, 2018.
