Jackson Lee NESBITT

The predominant influence of Thomas Hart Benton upon Jackson Lee Nesbitt (1913-2008), as both a mentor and friend was foundational for Nesbitt. While studying with Benton, John Demartelly, and painter Ross Braught at the Kansas City Art Institute in the 1930s, Nesbitt mastered the power of American Regionalism, with its flow and sweep that brought figures, landscape, and 20th-century industry into a rhythmic harmony. But Nesbitt's superior skill as a draughtsman distinguished him in a language beyond Benton's idealized, bucolic range - articulating industrial symmetry among workers embedded within the engines of 20th-century production. His 1930s commission for the Sheffield Steel Corporation brought him national recognition and is a tribute to industry and its power to elevate society.