The Semi-Finals: Benton v. Krøyer!

Third Thursday: Bringing big names to your mid-month!

---

"Semifinals" designates the Fourth to Seventh Rounds of the Infinite Art Tournament.  This is a Fifth Round Match.  It pits Thomas Hart Benton (4-0-1, 41-19, .683), who just beat Kandinsky by a single vote, against Peter Severin Krøyer (4-0, 37-17, .685), who beat Georges de La Tour, also by a single vote.

---

Thomas Hart Benton
1889 - 1975
American

Thomas Hart Benton was one of America's most popular and heavily patronized modern artists during the decades leading up to World War II, and his murals were especially acclaimed.... While his subjects were primarily based in America's heartland, he lived in New York City for twenty years. Considered by many to be reactionary due to his outspoken and inflammatory diatribes against the art world, Benton, a populist, did in fact boldly use his art to protest the KKK, lynching, and fascism during the 1930s and 1940s.... The advent of Abstract Expressionism has all but eclipsed Benton's importance in the history of modern art. - The Art Story

• Finished First in Phase 1, Flight 10, with a voting score of .818.
• Tied for Second in Phase 2, Flight 2, with a voting score of .364.
• Survived the Phase 2 Tiebreaker.
• Beat John Robert Cozens easily in Round 1.
• Beat Richard Long easily in Round 2.
• Crushed Lorenzo Lotto in Round 3.
• Tied with Andy Goldsworthy in his first attempt at Round 4. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Defeated Wassily Kandinsky in a Fourth Round Tiebreaker by a single vote. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!

---

Peter Severin Krøyer
1851 - 1900
Danish

The combination of Krøyer's technical bravado and the persistent appeal of his Skagen imagery have made it difficult for art scholars in Denmark to resist him; at the same time, however, the frivolity of content in his paintings has left scholars reticent to give him full credit for his creative enterprise. When the question of substance in Krøyer's paintings is taken up, the reference is often somewhat apologetic. "Krøyer is so masterly in his handling," wrote Krøyer's contemporary N. V. Dorph in 1902, "that he would have to reach great heights to match it with content of commensurate significance. And those heights, he never reaches. There is an undeniable disparity between spirit and hand in Krøyer's art." - Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide

• Thumped Leon Kossoff in Round 1.
• Crushed American Jeff Koons, albeit with gentle lyricism, in Round 2.
• On recount, was found to have beaten Florentine master Domenico Ghirlandaio in Round 3 by a two-vote swing. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Beat Georges de La Tour in the Fourth Round by a single vote. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!

---