Carl Benton Compton  (1905 - 1981)

Carl Benton Compton

(1905-81)

Born in Estherville, Iowa, Compton received a bachelor of arts from Notre Dame University in 1929. He studied the same year in Paris at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, and in 1930 at the Academie Colarossi. In 1935, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Chicago.

Compton studied education at Norre Dame (1935-36), followed by art study in Mexico (1937-39, 1941). He earned a master of fine arts at La Escuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes, and Dan Miguel de Allende, Mexico (1943).  He studied at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge (1943-44). His instructors included Emil Antoine Bourdelle and Boris Israelevich Anisfeld.

Benton was an authority on the Tarascan art of Mexico and lived and traveled in Mexico for twenty-five years. He conducted archaeological tours of Mexico and served on the board of the Texas Archaeological Society. In the 1950s, on an archaeological expedition at Lake Lewisville near Denton, he discovered Indian hearth sites. 

Compton died at his home in Denton. Mildred Norris Compton was his wife.

INSTITUTIONS WHERE COMPTON WAS A TEACHER

Paulon Academy of Art, South Bend, Indiana (1935)

Midland Academy of Art, South Bend (1935-36, 1940)

Southwestern University, Georgetown (1936-43), head of the art department

La Esccuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes, San Miguel d Allende (1942)

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge (1943-44)

North Texas State Teachers College, Denton (1944-46)

Honorary doctorate of letters Universidada Interamericanan

Doctorate of academy of Accademia di Scienti ed Arti, Rome.


EXHIBITIONS

Art Institute of Chicago (1934-35)

Denver Art Museum (1936)

Notional Exhibition of American Art, Rockefeller Center, New York (1938)

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1938)

Annual Southeast Texas Artists Exhibition, Houston (1938)

Texas-Oklahoma General Exhibition (1941)

Texas General Exhibition (1942, 1944-45, 1947-48)

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia (1942)

Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (1943 one-man)

Texas Sculptors Group (1943, 1947 traveling exhibition)

Annual Texas Print Exhibition, Dallas (1944 award, 1945)

Southwestern Prints and Drawings Annual Exhibition, Dallas (1948, 1950)

Texas Painting and Sculpture Annual Exhibition (1950)

Hock Shop Collection: Rediscovering Texas Artists of the Past, Center for the Visual Arts, Denton (1998)

Compton studied art at Notre Dame University and the Art Institute of Chicago, where he received a bachelor of fine arts degree. Compton taught in Mexico and in Texas at the North Texas State Teachers College in Denton, Texas. He was an active exhibitor in Texas and exhibited in NY, PA and IL.