Cornfed Culture 255 



George Bellows sprang from the midwest. Howard Chandler 

 Christy was born in a cabin on a corn title near McConnells- 

 ville, Ohio. In Paris, in 1915, Ralph Barton, out of Kansas 

 City, and Thomas Benton, another Missourian, shared an 

 attic studio. What betrayed Barton was the abandonment of 

 his native, corn-fed culture for a pseudo-cosmopolitanism; 

 Benton was loyal to his genius. He has gone back to Missouri, 

 to drive his roots deep into his native soil. Benton and Grant 

 Wood, painter of the Iowa corn lands, represent the American 

 spirit in the realm of art. 



The artist, like the corn, is sustained by two sets of roots. 

 One of these needs must drive deep into that which is uni- 

 versal, epic. The other set of roots runs out on all sides, close 

 to the surface of the artist's environment and his time. The 

 permanence of his genius depends upon his ability to develop 

 this double-root system. It may be said that the future of art 

 in America rests on our artists and writers growing like the 

 corn. 



