PEM Featured on WGBH Friday Night

This Friday, Open Studio with Jared Bowen, WGBH’s local arts program, will feature the Peabody Essex Museum’s American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood exhibit.

The episode will air Friday, July 24 at 8:30 p.m. on WGBH 2.

Jared Bowen is WGBH’s Emmy Award-winning Executive Editor and Host for Arts.

His weekly television series takes viewers inside the creative process, offering a blend of profiles, performances, and contemporary exhibitions by artists in Greater Boston, New England, and across the country.

The PEM exhibit is the first major exhibition on Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) in more than 25 years and the first to explore important connections between Benton’s art and the movies.

After working briefly in the silent film industry, Benton became acutely aware of storytelling’s shift toward motion pictures and developed a cinematic style of painting that melded European art historical traditions and modern movie production techniques, according to the Peabody Essex Museum’s website.

In paintings, murals, drawings, prints and illustrated books, Benton reinvented national narratives for 20th-century America and captivated the public with his visual storytelling.

The exhibition runs at the PEM through Sept. 7.

Photo courtesy WGBH/Amanda Kersey