Ben Wilson

Lightness (Abstract Expressionist painting), Hand signed and Estate stamped

1980

Ben Wilson Byzantium, 1975 Oil on Masonite painting Hand signed reverse, Titled, "Byzantium", dated 1975 by the artist and also with estate stamp - in addition to Ben Wilson's hand signature Frame included: elegantly framed in a handmade white wood frame with UV plexiglass This painting is done by the second generation Abstract Expressionist artist Ben Wilson - one of the youngest artists to be given a show at ACA Gallery in 1940. The work is signed by the artist on the back and also signed with the Estate Stamp and signature on the back. Ben Wilson was born in Philadelphia in 1913 to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Kiev and settled in New York City. He was educated in Manhattan public schools and graduated from City College in 1935. To gain exposure to a wider range of styles, he also studied at the National Academy of Design and at the Educational Alliance. Admired by critics throughout his long career, Wilson was singled out as a “discovery” by the New York Times art critic Edward Alden Jewel even before his first one-man show at the Galerie Neuf in 1946. His paintings of the ’30s and ’40s were expressionistically rendered, often Biblical parables, filled with what he called “the grief of the intolerable” and reflecting an acute awareness of the agony of the time, from the Holocaust to the Spanish Civil War. A WPA artist who identified strongly with the plight of the Jews in Europe, he relentlessly explored themes of war, torment, and futility in his early decades of painting. When times changed and social pressures subsided, Wilson’s mood lifted. He spent 1952-54 in Paris working at the Academie Julien. During the ’50s his involvement with specific imagery persisted but became more psychological and mythic in orientation. Influenced by Cubism, he created a vocabulary of interlocking shapes and bold, sweeping gestures that served as a transition between his early figurative expressionism and his later abstract constructivist concerns. Towards the end of the decade Wilson reached a crossroads, moving towards abstraction and searching for what he called “a scaffolding under the externals.” By 1960, influenced by the Russian Constructivists, Mondrian, and Abstract Expressionism, Wilson turned to abstraction. Reexamining the basic elements of painting, he evolved his own personal vocabulary and structure, fusing the cerebral and the emotive. He became increasingly experimental, using house paint, sand, and other unorthodox materials in paintings that he worked from all directions, dripping, spraying, stenciling, and collaging. He employed elements of disjunction, repetitions of geometric motifs, linear networks, and complex overlays to create the transparent, multi-layer development of space that characterizes his later paintings. A consummate draftsman, Wilson filled notebook after notebook with drawings that he amplified in his paintings. Eschewing popular movements, Wilson was always one to pursue a personal aesthetic. Despite more than 30 one-man shows and 50 years of teaching, he increasingly withdrew from the gallery scene but continued to paint daily until his death at age 88 in 2001 in Blairstown, New Jersey, where he and his sculptor wife Evelyn Wilson...

Robert Goodnough Collage Canvas Painting III, 1983 Painted canvas collage on cardboard (signed twice and inscribed to artist and curator Matthew Rose) S...

Hyde Solomon Snow Field (Poindexter Gallery), 1974 Oil on Canvas (Signed, Dated & Framed) Hand-signed by artist, "Hyde Solomon 74", upper left on the front and on the back. Poindexte...

Ben Wilson Concert, ca. 1989 Oil on masonite board (Hand Signed by the artist; also bears the Estate Stamp) Boldly signed front and back, titled and dated on the back by Ben Wilson and also stamped on the back by the estate of Ben Wilson 42 × 48 inches Unframed This stunning painting is done by the second generation Abstract Expressionist artist Ben Wilson - one of the youngest artists to be given a show at prestigious ACA Gallery in 1940. This work "Concert" - depicting instruments, in a light, lyrically abstract painting. Exquisite colors and subtle imagery. In 2017, he was the subject of a retrospective at the George Segal Gallery at Montclair State University from September 6 to November 4 and it was accompanied by a catalogue. About Ben Wilson: Ben Wilson was born in Philadelphia in 1913 to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Kiev and settled in New York City. He was educated in Manhattan public schools and graduated from City College in 1935. To gain exposure to a wider range of styles, he also studied at the National Academy of Design and at the Educational Alliance. Admired by critics throughout his long career, Wilson was singled out as a “discovery” by the New York Times art critic Edward Alden Jewel even before his first one-man show at the Galerie Neuf in 1946. His paintings of the ’30s and ’40s were expressionistically rendered, often Biblical parables, filled with what he called “the grief of the intolerable” and reflecting an acute awareness of the agony of the time, from the Holocaust to the Spanish Civil War. A WPA artist who identified strongly with the plight of the Jews in Europe, he relentlessly explored themes of war, torment, and futility in his early decades of painting. When times changed and social pressures subsided, Wilson’s mood lifted. He spent 1952-54 in Paris working at the Academie Julien. During the ’50s his involvement with specific imagery persisted but became more psychological and mythic in orientation. Influenced by Cubism, he created a vocabulary of interlocking shapes and bold, sweeping gestures that served as a transition between his early figurative expressionism and his later abstract constructivist concerns. Towards the end of the decade Wilson reached a crossroads, moving towards abstraction and searching for what he called “a scaffolding under the externals.” By 1960, influenced by the Russian Constructivists, Mondrian, and Abstract Expressionism, Wilson turned to abstraction. Reexamining the basic elements of painting, he evolved his own personal vocabulary and structure, fusing the cerebral and the emotive. He became increasingly experimental, using house paint, sand, and other unorthodox materials in paintings that he worked from all directions, dripping, spraying, stenciling, and collaging. He employed elements of disjunction, repetitions of geometric motifs, linear networks, and complex overlays to create the transparent, multi-layer development of space that characterizes his later paintings. A consummate draftsman, Wilson filled notebook after notebook with drawings that he amplified in his paintings. Eschewing popular movements, Wilson was always one to pursue a personal aesthetic. Despite more than 30 one-man shows and 50 years of teaching, he increasingly withdrew from the gallery scene but continued to paint daily until his death at age 88 in 2001 in Blairstown, New Jersey, where he and his sculptor wife Evelyn Wilson...

Ben Wilson Ozymandias, 1989 Oil on masonite board Boldly signed by Ben Wilson on the back 36 × 48 inches Unframed Provenance: acquired from the Estate of Ben Wilson This work is titled "Ozymandias" after the famous sonnet written by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). Shelley's poem is one of the most poignant meditations on the fleeting nature of human power and the inevitability of decline. The poem serves as a reminder that time erodes even the most imposing empires and leaders and that the pursuit of lasting fame and control is ultimately futile. Depending on how one views Ben Wilson's Abstract Expressionist painting of "Ozymandias" -- some of the imagery might reveal the head of an angry king and a sickle. Shelley's poem Ozymandias reads: I met a traveler from an antique land...

Katherine Porter Tempest, 1989 Oil painting on gessoed India rag paper with deckled edges 29 1/4 × 25 inches signed and dated in graphite on the lower front Unframed (accompanied by ...

Signed lower left: "Botkin". Henry Botkin (1896-1983) was a mid-century American modernist equally known as a painter, a collage artist, and for his work as a proponent of abstract art. Botkin’s oeuvre can be defined by three distinct styles—School of Paris Modernism, Cubism, and Abstract Expressionism. While each of the three styles is considered distinct, music can be seen as the common thread throughout his artistic output. In the 1930s, the impact of Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess” is readily apparent in works such as Woman in Boat...

Mixed Media painting. Vibrant colors. About the artist: John Grande is a New York-based artist who reflects upon modern and contemporary culture with his constructed paintings, ...

Mixed Media Painting. About the artist: John Grande is a New York-based artist who reflects upon modern and contemporary culture with his constructed paintings, sculptures and mu...

Mixed Media homage to the American Dream. About the artist: John Grande is a New York-based artist who reflects upon modern and contemporary culture with his constructed paintings,...

Highly textured composition by an unknown artist (20th Century). Thick diagonal swatches of blue and white are layered over an off white background in a nearly parallel pattern. Sand...

Bookatz's artistic practice embodies a dynamic and multifaceted approach to creation. His canvases resonate with an improvisational interplay, a reflection reminiscent of the nuance...