Karl Benjamin (1925-2012), "FS #8," 1962, Oil on canvas, 50" H x 40" W

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Modern & Contemporary Fine Art

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Jun 13, 2023

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• Lot Description

  Karl Benjamin
  (1925-2012)
  "FS #8," 1962
  Oil on canvas
  Signed and dated lower left: KB; titled in Sharpie on the stretcher, possibly in the hand of the artist; titled again on a gallery label affixed to the stretcher
  50" H x 40" W
  Provenance: Property from the Estate of Tevis and Jean Jacobs, San Francisco, CA
  Hollis Galleries, New York, NY, 1965
  Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
  Property from a Distinguished Palm Springs Estate
  
  Other Notes: Louis Stern has confirmed the authenticity of this work. It will be included in the catalogue raisonné of the paintings, currently being compiled by Louis Stern Fine Arts in cooperation with the Benjamin Living Trust.
  
  Karl Benjamin, born on December 29, 1925, was an American abstract artist who played a significant role in the development of abstract art in Southern California. He is best known for his vibrant, geometric paintings that combined color, form, and composition in unique ways. Benjamin's work garnered critical acclaim and cemented his place as a prominent figure in the abstract art movement.
  
  Born in Chicago, Illinois, Benjamin attended Northwestern University, dropping out to join the U.S. Navy in 1943. After the end of WWII, he moved to California and returned to his studies with the support of the GI Bill. In 1949, he graduated from the University of Redlands with a BA in English Literature, History, and Philosophy.
  
  Benjamin did not begin to pursue visual art until the early 1950s. His time spent as an elementary school teacher, where he was required to develop art lessons for his students, led to his own interest in color relationships and enrollment in graduate school. Benjamin graduated from Claremont Graduate School (now Claremont Graduate University) with an MFA in 1960.
  
  Hard Edge painting developed in California in the 1950s as a West Coast response to the more painterly and gestural work of the East Coast Abstract Expressionists. Benjamin, along with Lorser Feitelson, Frederick Hammersley, and John McLaughlin, were the four artists featured in the landmark 1959 exhibition titled "Four Abstract Classicists" organized by Jules Langsner at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which later traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum in Exposition Park (now known as LACMA). This exhibition also traveled internationally, with showings at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, England, and at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, under the title "West Coast Hard-Edge."
  
  Benjamin's FS series, which stands for "Floating Structure," began in the early 1960s and marked a departure from his earlier more structured works. In these paintings, Benjamin explored a looser and more improvisational approach to composition, using vibrant colors and irregular shapes to create dynamic and lyrical compositions. The FS series is considered a significant contribution to the development of abstract art in California and beyond.
  
  Throughout his career, Benjamin's artwork was exhibited extensively, both nationally and internationally. His paintings can be found in prestigious collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
  
  Related artists include Josef Albers, Peter Alexander, Billy Al Bengston, Mary Corse, Lorser Feitelson, Frederick Hammersley, Ellsworth Kelly, Helen Lundeberg, John McLaughlin, Leon Polk Smith, and Frank Stella.

  Condition

  Visual: Overall good condition. Occasional specks of grime commensurate with age. Craquelure scattered throughout. Fine paint shrinkage scattered primarily throughout the outer edges. Stretcher bar crease along the lower edge. A pinhead-sized reverse pressure mark with an attendant break in the pigment in the lower edge, left of center, in the white pigment.
  
  
  Blacklight: No evidence of restoration.
  
  Frame: 51" H x 43" W x 1.625" D

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