Ben Carlton Mead (American, 1902 to 1986)
Ben Carlton Mead was born in Bay City, Texas, but spent most of his childhood in Amarillo. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1923-1926, was a staff artist for the Witte Museum in San Antonio, and taught art at Amarillo Junior College. During the Great Depression, Mead was commissioned by the WPA to do several murals throughout the Southwest, most notably in the Tucumcari County courthouse. Santa Ynez Mission has a strong narrative quality similar to Mead’s Depression-era murals and portrays life in the wide-open spaces of the American Southwest.
Information courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries, July 2009.