HURDY GURDY MAN:

Ben Messick and Midwestern Regionalism in the 1930s

Maclen Johnson

ARTH 350: Modern Art

Dr. Russo
 Johnson 1

Benjamin Newton Messick was an Ozarks native, displaying exceptional humanity in his

lively paintings, prints, and lithographs of the people back home and the interwar years of Los

Angeles. His work was widespread, ranging from iconic portraits of Emmett Kelly, lithographs

of a burgeoning California, and nostalgic images of the Midwest. The art critic Alfred

Frankenstein referred to Messick as a “modern Daumier” for his sympathetic portrayals and

“compassion for his fellow man, especially the unfortunate.”1 Ben Messick’s Hurdy Gurdy Man,

circa 1930s, exemplifies the Regionalist art movement (image 1). Hailing from Strafford,

Missouri, Messick’s painting demonstrates the role of community in the Midwest and maintains

a nostalgic, yet enigmatic depiction of everyday life. Hurdy Gurdy Man demonstrates the distinct

American Scene style in contrast to the growth of European Modernism, playing on color and

lighting to accentuate the painting’s small-town feel. This essay situates Messick and his work in

art history through comparison with Harvey Dunn, Grant Wood, and John Steuart Curry, as well

as considering the California influence from Messick’s time studying and teaching at the

Chouinard School. It draws on analyses published in articles, interviews with Messick, common

iconographic themes in his work and among his contemporaries, and past exhibitions to

emphasize the local aesthetic of the painting and its place in 1930s Regionalism.

There is little documentation of Messick’s early life in the Ozarks except for the

Midwestern influence on some of his art, but his expansive career in California is well-recorded.

Although the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian hold microfilm records of Messick’s

work, they are not available online.2 Because most personal information about Messick is found

in gallery biographies, these facts are checked against other exhibitions to verify their legitimacy.

Messick served during World War I in 1917 and was a member of the Allied Expeditionary

Force (AEF) in France.3 Although there were eight official artists of the AEF, Messick was not
 Johnson 2

one of them. After the war, he moved to Los Angeles, California, and attended the Chouinard Art

Institute from 1925 to 1930.4 He taught at the institute in the 1940s and 1950s and was a sketch

artist for Disney and Metro Goldwyn Mayer.5 He did not return to his Missouri home, but his

fondness for everyday people never left. It would be his experiences with the Los Angeles

population that defined his work.

The first World War sparked the notion of collective memory among soldiers and artists

who brought forth their stories in a precursory style to 1930s Regionalism. Harvey Dunn, an

AEF artist, championed the heroic and resilient traits of soldiers, acknowledging the horrors of

war without negating his patriotic message.6 He was born in the Dakota Territory and was

represented as a “man’s artist” by the American Legion Monthly magazine, a publication to

which he contributed many paintings and covers.7 Although the Monthly praised Dunn for his

physical feats above all else, Steven Trout notes that his popularity in the AEF came from his

honest renderings of battle and emotive portrayals of his fellow soldiers.8 The infantrymen of

WWI, nicknamed “doughboys,” “invariably saw something of themselves” in the vivid facial

expressions and articulate body language of Dunn’s paintings.9 In The Engineer, Dunn carefully

shows the weight of the equipment that is loading the soldier down, as well as his determination

to continue forward (image 2). He had “little patience with realism as an end unto itself,”

utilizing the style to bring forth emotion “above all else.”10 These themes of expression,

patriotism, and empathy would define American art in the coming decades as the nation sought

to unite its people through the Great Depression.

The American Scene style was birthed out of a rebellion against modern art, with its

participants illustrating a nostalgic longing for simplicity in the face of industrial and urban

growth. This was a fundamental shift away from the landscape painters of the twentieth century
 Johnson 3

who captured the oceans and mountains they saw on holiday; the twentieth-century Regionalists

chose “the ordinary, even the ugly” in a rejection of romanticism and an homage to mankind.11

Kenneth Labudde elaborates on the importance of the story in Regionalism and relatability to the

viewer, as a person “could recognize what a painting was about without being concerned with

what a painting was.”12 Art critic Thomas Craven wrote that the regionalists came the closest to

painting the realities of American life.13 It was a style that painted the right place at the right

time. Because the paintings were still representational, they were considered superior to the “fads

and style” of the futurist and European-inspired modern art.14 The Great Depression and the

Works Progress Administration (WPA) played a critical role in the sponsorship of Regionalism

with federally funded support for working artists. The Federal Art Project was one of the WPA

programs that guaranteed wages to artists who created for the public good. The pay was only

twenty-five dollars a week, but it was the first time that the government deemed art a necessary

asset.15 Regionalism faced its share of critics as well. Cultivating a national identity and culture

was a major goal for the president to lift citizens’ spirits as the Great Depression dragged on.16 In

1934, Grant Wood was placed in charge of the Iowa branch of the Federal Art Project and had to

mediate between true conservative artists, Scene painters, and the other “moderns.”17 Staunch

traditionalists did not enjoy the stylized approach that Regionalists took, classifying it alongside

the “jazz paintings” of abstractionists.18 Regionalist painters were also condemned by Social

Realists for not addressing leftist issues in their art.19 However, the “authentic” feel of

Regionalism enticed audiences and collectors who longed for familiarity and comfort in a

difficult time.20

In California, Messick held onto his Regionalist style, bathing hard realities with a wash

of hope. While in Los Angeles, Messick worked on murals sponsored by the WPA’s Federal Art
 Johnson 4

Project. These murals were in the Regionalist style, designed to be comforting to the people of

Los Angeles and depicted “recognizable and uplifting narratives” to boost morale during the

Great Depression.21 Edith Hamlin’s Mission Dolores has a similar stiff style in its painted

humans as Hurdy Gurdy Man. Hamlin’s mural also pays tribute to the history of California and

its multiculturalism, depicting an exchanging of ideas between Native Americans and a mission

monk (image 3).22 The Industrial Revolution influenced Regionalist paintings of the city, too.

They were not done with a “soft, impressionistic palette,” and tended to reflect on the squalor of

urban settings.23 Powell Street, a WPA mural by Lucien Labaudt is bustling, but its colors reside

in brown and blue mid-tones (image 4). Many of the figures cast their gaze downward, creating a

resigned feeling of city life. In contrast, Messick’s Main Street Café Society is bright (image 5).

The reds, browns, and yellows are used to illuminate rather than downplay, adding to the

animated interactions between the café patrons. Finding a crowd of distant faces on the street

was one reality of California city life, but so was purchasing a meal and talking about the news

of the day. Many of these works have been destroyed, removed, or painted over after decades of

renovation – and the belief that the artwork was of a low quality.24 These shifts in mentality

contributed to the loss of favor of Regionalist paintings and the eventual dominance of Abstract

Expressionism.

The facial expressions and use of color are distinctive to Midwest Regionalism, providing

the expressionist link to the modern art movement while retaining a focus on figural

representation and scenes. There are multiple comparisons to draw between Messick and his

better-known contemporaries. The Midwest Regionalists all left their hometowns and ventured to

city centers; New York, Paris, Los Angeles.25 Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry also brought

expressionist styles to their works. Inspiration from the Impressionists and painting light is seen
 Johnson 5

throughout their art, most notably between Wood and Messick. The textured brushstrokes are

absent, but the emphasis of light to portray emotion becomes central. Wood began his career in

this style and gradually shifted to farmland and its workers, developing the “hard-edge” style in

works like Stone City, Iowa (image 6).26 While Wood’s portrayals of people were edged with

satire, his landscapes held “a noticeable degree of reverence.”27 Curry’s paintings tend to be

“smoother,” with blended strokes and darker tones to illustrate the melancholy associated with

Midwest nostalgia in his wartime remembrance paintings (image 7). Messick’s art is notable

because of its persistent vibrance and empathy.

Hurdy Gurdy Man captures the nostalgia of Regionalism and dedication to the portrayal

of everyday people. It is an elusive work, too. It does not appear on the Springfield Art

Museum’s website; it has not been featured in other Messick exhibitions, and there is no

literature to be found that cites it as an example of his style. Based on the estimated time it was

painted and comparisons to other sketches and lithographs, Hurdy Gurdy Man depicts a Los

Angeles scene. Populated with brightly dressed figures in green, red, and blue, Messick captures

the interplay of the setting sun on clothing and skin with blocks of yellow. Compared to Curry’s

The Return of Private Davis from the Argonne, the colors of Hurdy Gurdy Man are brighter and

blockier (images 7, 1). However, there are many similarities to his Midwestern Hoedown on

James River #2 (image 8). Both images are high-energy, utilizing the movement of skating and

dancing to guide the viewer through the work. The central figure of Hurdy Gurdy Man is more

mysterious than the Hoedown dancer. The composition pulls out from him as he grips a chest

with a monkey perched on top of it, head tilted and eyebrows raised as he exchanges words with

the onlooker in the red cap. The painting examines both the children’s reaction of wonder and

the adults’ hesitant suspicion. The likelihood that he is a performer is high, considering
 Johnson 6

Messick’s interest in circus subjects.28 In subject matter, The Pitchman lithograph of 1940 may

offer more answers (image 9). The monkey is absent, but the “pitchman,” or salesperson, entices

his audience with playing cards and the same construction of a box on a stand. “Hurdy gurdy” is

a type of medieval stringed instrument, but the term here is most likely a colloquial phrase for a

salesperson.29 As Los Angeles was transforming from “sleepy backwater to cultural and

commercial powerhouse” in the 1930s, Hurdy Gurdy Man explores the novelty of a traveling

salesman, comparable to the Midwestern “Iowa City welcome” granted to Professor Harold Hill

in The Music Man.30 It is truthful to the core of Messick’s work, blending the mundane with the

magical through an earnest understanding of humanity.

Despite Messick’s impressive resume and widely held respect for his work, he would

fade away from the American public eye shortly after his death in 1981. The Regionalist style

was also lost to time, in part because of slashed funding from the Federal Art Project as the war

budget increased and the rise of Socialist Realism in the Soviet Union that made the American

Scene totalitarian by association.31 Just as Dunn painted a “set of conflicting truths” about

national pride and the brutality of battle in WWI, Regionalists examined the earthiness and

safety of the Midwestern landscape against the struggles of the people that resided there.32 For

Messick, this manifested in his exploration of the “lower” walks of life. Messick earned his seat

at the table alongside his colleagues. He represents the multifaceted nation he so often painted; at

once a regionalist holding his ground in a field of heightened abstraction and a Californian

professor guiding the next generation into unknown artistic territory. Hurdy Gurdy Man captures

this division, alongside the interwar tensions that revived small-town sentiments and a desire to

reminisce on simpler times.

 Johnson 7

Appendix

Image 1. Ben Messick. Hurdy Gurdy Man, late 1930s or early 1940s.

Image 2. Harvey Dunn. The Engineer, circa 1918.

 Johnson 8

Image 3. Edith Hamlin. Mission Dolores, 1937.

 Johnson 9

Image 4. Lucien Labaudt. Powell Street, 1934.

 Johnson 10

Image 5. Ben Messick. Main Street Café Society, before 1938.

 Johnson 11

Image 6. Grant Wood. Stone City, Iowa, 1930.

 Johnson 12

Image 7. John Steuart Curry. The Return of Private Davis from the Argonne, 1928-1940.
 Johnson 13

Image 8. Ben Messick. Hoedown on James River #2, circa 1930s.

Image 9. Ben Messick. The Pitchman, 1940.

1
“Benjamin Newton Messick,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), https://collections.lacma.org/node/167195.
This refers to Honoré Daumier, a nineteenth-century French painter who infused his work with political and social life.
2
Ben Messick Papers, 1934-1965. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/ben-messick-papers-8041.
3
“Benjamin Messick (1891-1981),” Sullivan Goss Gallery, https://www.sullivangoss.com/artists/ben-messick-1891-1981;
“Ben Messick (1901-1981),” Brier Hill Gallery, https://brierhillgallery.com/ben-messick-1891-1981.
4
Laguna Art Museum, https://lagunaartmuseum.org/exhibitions/ben-messick-memories-of-los-angeles/; Sullivan Goss
Gallery, https://www.sullivangoss.com/artists/ben-messick-1891-1981..
5
LACMA, https://collections.lacma.org/node/167195; Brier Hill Gallery, https://brierhillgallery.com/ben-messick-1891-
1981.
6
Steven Trout, On the Battlefield of Memory: The First World War and American Remembrance, 1914-1941 (Tuscaloosa,
AL: University of Alabama Press, 2010), 158.
7
Trout, Battlefield of Memory, 159.
8
Ibid, 160.
9
Ibid, 160. The origin of the doughboy nickname is unclear and used most frequently for WWI infantrymen; it was in use
until the 1940s.
10
Ibid, 161.
11
Ibid, 51.
12
Kenneth J. Labudde, “Regionalist Painting and American Studies,” Journal of the Mississippi Valley American Studies
Association 2 no. 2 (1961), 51.
13
Labudde, “Regionalist Painting and American Studies,” 50.
14
Evan R. Firestone, “Incursions of Modern Art in the Regionalist Heartland,” The Palimpsest 70 no. 2 (1991),
https://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4918&context=palimpsest, 151.
15
Erika Lee Doss, Twentieth-Century American Art (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002), 100.
16
Doss, Twentieth-Century American Art, 100.
17
Firestone, “Incursions of Modern Art in the Regionalist Heartland,” 152.
18
Ibid, 149.
19
Ibid, 102.
20
Trout, Battlefield of Memory, 179.
21
Laurel Bliss and Melissa Lamont, “Documenting WPA Murals in California,” Art Documentation: Journal of the Art
Libraries Society of North America 29 no. 1 (2010), 6.
22
Bliss and Lamont, “Documenting WPA Murals in California,” 6.
23
Labudde, “Regionalist Painting and American Studies,” 51.
24
Ibid, 9.
25
Labudde, “Regionalist Painting and American Studies,” 49.
26
Slaby, “Grant Wood’s Agrarian Landscapes,” 70.
27
Alison C. Slaby, “Grant Wood’s Agrarian Landscapes” in Formations of Identity: Society, Politics, and Landscape ed.
Floyd Martin and Eileen Yanoviak (Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016), 73.
28
LACMA, https://collections.lacma.org/node/167195.
29
Sadly, there really is no connection to the Donovan song.
30
Brier Hill Gallery, https://brierhillgallery.com/ben-messick-1891-1981.
31
Bliss and Lamont, “Documenting WPA Murals in California,” 6.
32
Trout, Battlefield of Memory, 172.

Annotated Bibliography

“Ben Messick, 1901-1981.” Brier Hill Gallery. https://brierhillgallery.com/ben-messick-1891- 1981.

The Brier Hill biography on Messick includes information on his work with the WPA mural project. It
details his interest in portraying the “low-lifes” of Los Angeles and examples of his 1940s work in the
area. The date for Messick’s birth is incorrect in the website title, but is noted correctly in the URL.

“Ben Messick, 1891-1981.” Sullivan Goss Gallery. Accessed 1 April 2020.

https://www.sullivangoss.com/artists/ben-messick-1891-1981.

This gallery listing for Ben Messick provides background information on the artist’s life. The site
organizes the eras of Messick’s paintings and his history at the Chouinard Art Institute. It is also the
source for Hoedown on James River #2.

“Ben Messick: Memories of Los Angeles.” Laguna Art Museum.

https://lagunaartmuseum.org/exhibitions/ben-messick-memories-of-los-angeles/.

The Messick biography at Laguna confirms his service in World War I, his studies at Chouinard, and
even the address at which he lived. It references his comparisons to Daumier and highlights his
depictions of Los Angeles citizens.

“Benjamin Newton Messick.” Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

https://collections.lacma.org/node/167195.

This blurb includes a bibliography of its own, referencing the Smithsonian archives on the Messick
papers and an interview with the artist. The museum is in the city where Messick made his home and
provides the most information out of the multiple gallery sources. It confirms his work with MGM and
Disney and again references his time with Chouinard and the WPA. LACMA is home to the Main
Street Café Society painting and the Pitchman lithograph.

Bliss, Lauren, and Melissa Lamont. “Documenting WPA Murals in California.” Art

Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America 29 no. 1 (2010): 4-10.

https://www-jstor-org.drury.idm.oclc.org/stable/27949532.

This article explains the history of the WPA murals in California, their themes, and the mission in
having them painted. Bliss and Lamont acknowledge that many murals have yet to be uncovered and
catalogued. It provides insight for the Federal Art Project in California and points of comparison for
Messick and other West Coast artists. The murals were commissioned to boost optimism and morale
during the Depression and depict popular folk stories of California and America. In this way, they share
similarities with the Regionalist style and its expansion out of the Midwest.

Doss, Erika Lee. Twentieth-Century American Art. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Lee’s book breaks down the evolution of modern art in America. The chapter on
Firestone, Evan R. “Incursions of Modern Art in the Regionalist Heartland.” The Palimpsest 72 no. 3

(1991): 148-161. Accessed 2 April 2020. https://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?

article=4918&context=palimpsest.

Firestone traces the history of art salons in Iowa and the triumph of the Regionalist “moderns.” He
notes the success of Grant Wood’s American Gothic as a turning point that brought the style to the
forefront. The three-way conflict between conservative artists who denounced stylization, Regionalists
who detested futurism and abstraction, and the modernists offers criticism and contextualizes WPA
efforts in the Midwest.

Labudde, Kenneth J. “Regionalist Painting and American Studies.” Journal of the Central

Mississippi Valley American Studies Association 2 no. 2 (1961): 49-65. https://www- jstor-

org.drury.idm.oclc.org/stable/40640346.

This article provides solid historical and iconological information on Regionalism and its role in
American history. Labudde breaks down the elements of Regionalism and the central figures of
Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, and Grant Wood. He compares the American Scene with the
landscape painters of the eighteenth century, pointing out the differences in reasoning and style that the
groups sought to portray in their work. Labudde cautions that the creations of the 1930s were still done
in “a golden light” and did not capture the true underbelly of American society. Since Regionalism rose
to prominence to offer solace and community, it makes sense that this was the case. It also connects to
Messick’s upbeat paintings of people from lower walks of life in California.

Slaby, Alison C. “Grant Wood’s Agrarian Landscapes: Myth, Memory, and Control” in Formation of

Identity: Society, Politics, and Landscape, edited by Floyd Martin and Eileen Yanoviak. Newcastle

upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016.

Slaby’s chapter in this book tackles the evolution of Grant Wood’s art, from Impressionist beginnings
to Regionalist fame. She notes the differences between his wry portraits and loving landscapes,
emphasizing his agrarian roots and the sense of the Midwest as home. She points out that Wood, like
Curry, initially distanced himself from his hometown, but returned later to play the “character” of the
down-to-earth farmer after spending many years in Paris. Although Messick did not go back to
Strafford, he maintained the Regionalist style on the West Coast.

Trout, Steven. On the Battlefield of Memory: The First World War and American Remembrance,

1914-1941. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2010.

Trout dives into the influence on artists during and after the First World War. His examination of AEF
artist Harvey Dunn acts as a precursor to Regionalism. Patriotism, expressionism, and the portrayal of
the infantry “doughboys” illustrate the evolution of American art in the 1900s. Additionally, his
discussion of John Steaurt Curry and how he is situated between WWI and the Midwestern-focused
1930s brings Messick into the fold. Trout offers a lengthy analysis of The Return of Private Davis from
the Argonne, and how the painting connects the two eras.