Ben Benn (1884-1983) “In Central Park” 1968 Abstract Expressionism Modernist

Description: Ben Benn. "In Central Park". 1968. Modernist painting of figures relaxing in the park. Signed and dated lower right. Titled on reverse. Oil on board. Framed. Sight: 9 x 12in. Overall: 12 x 15in. Ben Benn (1884-1983) Benn Benn was a pioneer American modernist whose independent style defied stylistic classification. Despite excursions into Cubism and Abstract Expressionism, Benn “seems always to have been a ‘subject’ painter. Considering this, it is remarkable that he remained visible at all during the 50′s and early 60′s, when prejudice against the representational amounted nearly to a proscription of it.”(1) Benn’s prominence in the art world over 6 decades was reaffirmed at a 90th birthday show at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. in 1974. Benn was born Benjamin Rosenberg in the town of Kamenets Podolsk just after Christmas in 1884. This town was the regional capital of an area in what is today, SW Ukraine, and was historically known as Podolia. The area was economically important because of its rich black earth and location near navigable rivers. At the time of Benn’s birth the area was ruled by Czarist Russia and 12% of the population was Jewish. Most of the inhabitants were Poles and Ukrainians. They were often in conflict and both sides blamed the Jews for siding with the other. The Russian rulers exploited these tensions and even encouraged them, which would sometimes result in pogroms. Just 3 years before Benn’s birth Czar Alexander III placed restrictions on Jews’ ability to earn a living and where they could live; “pogroms became commonplace.”(2) It is therefore no surprise that the Rosenberg family chose, along with thousands of others, to immigrate from Podolia to the United States in 1894 or 1899. This was a good decision as Benn’s birth place became the site of a notorious massacre of 23,600 Jews by the Nazis in August of 1941. Benn had many solo exhibitions during his lifetime, including one at the Jewish Museum in 1965. His works are in many museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney, and Hirshhorn Museum. A Benn painting is also “the only American artist represented in the great Kreuller Collection in the Hague, Holland, which houses the finest Van Goghs.”(5) Sources: (1) The New York Times, Raynor, Vivien, “Art: Works by Benn Are Back in View,” July 10, 1983. (2) Geocities.com/bargfamily. (3) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (4) Kleeblatt, Norman, and Chevlowe, Susan, Painting a Place in America: Jewish Artists in New York 1900-1945, 1991, The Jewish Museum, New York. (5) 100 Contemporary American Jewish Artists and Sculptors, 1947, YKUF, Art Section, New York. (6) Prince, David L., Ben Benn: An American Painter 1884-1983, Hammer Galleries, October 25, 1983 to November 12, 1983. (7) Kramer, Hilton, The New York Times, February 25, 1967

Price: 1200 USD

Location: Cleveland, Ohio

End Time: 2024-09-26T13:43:41.000Z

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