Regionalism
came to prominence in the nineteen
thirties and forties
largely as a rejection of the modernist movement.
Regionalists typically depicted
nostalgic, agrarian scenes typical of the
nineteenth-century American genre artists.
Like the genre painters, regionalists
largely ignored the upper class and
instead
made their heroes the common folk.
This is evident and Thomas Hart Benton's Aeschylus and Hercules.
And if you ask me,
that was a big mistake.
Common folk are scrappy.
And that guy is fighting a friggin bull. 
Now, that guy escapes from HIS museum, how am I gonna bring it back?
Flutter my eyelashes and say, "Pretty please?" Nah, nah, nah.
Give me some 19th century nobleman in a crushed velvet suit
clutching his hanky. That's more my speed.
So thank you, Regionalists. Thank you very much
you jerks.
