Tom & Rita

The artist Thomas Hart Benton and his wife Rita Piacenza hanging where Rita left them, in the couple's bedroom in Kansas City, MO.

this rotting catastrophe

Dear Congressman:
“The Foxes,” you will remember from your Sunday School days, “have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.”

It is now more than 90 days since the flood waters hit the valley out here. Ninety days of wrack, ruin, muck -- and stink!

The attached lithograph shows what things are like, as of this day, for thousands of poor hopeless “Sons of Man” in the Kaw river basin. It was made for you and your fellow members of the 82nd Congress. It is not for sale. [1]

It is given you in the hope that you’ll forget the academics of precedent and get out a new bill which will relieve the human side of this rotting catastrophe.

Truly yours,
Thomas H. Benton

Letter to Congress from Thomas Hart Benton accompanying a lithograph of his "Homecoming, Kaw Valley", framed and hanging on the wall of Tom Benton's home in Kansas City, Missouri, which we visited over the weekend.

The Hart home and studio is now a Missouri State Park and the ranger who walked us through the property told us that the lithographs by the American artist were poorly received by Congress -- treated like newsprint and used to blot spilled coffee. They had no discernable impact on the governing body's action toward relieving the suffering of the folks who had been impacted by a massive flood to hit Kansas City in 1951.

"Just like Katrina," said our ranger. "Nothing's changed."



[1] Correction: some things do change. This lithograph is now available for sale at Paramour Fine Arts for $1600 »