Tom Bennett

Born to Kill, monochromatic, crime, narrative, high contrast, drama

2020

Monotype on paper Dramatic imagery from Tom Bennett’s series of black and white monotypes, blending surrealistic mindscapes with stark realism About Tom Bennett: With quick brushstrokes, Tom Bennett creates representational images of human figures and animals, emphasizing movement in a manner reminiscent of Lucien Freud, Edgar Degas and the photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Elongated and blurry, the horse racing up a hill (Canter Fritz, 2002) and the sinister cat landing a leap (Chien Blanc, 1998) elicit a sense of foreboding enhanced by Bennett’s somber palette; his female figures too reflect a grim sense of humor with their distorted nude bodies. The face of Untitled Figure (1997), for example, is obscured by layers of dark paint. Classically trained as a painter, he initially worked in oil on canvas but discovered that monotype printing enabled him to “literally push the image around,” creating an essential element of motion. To overcome the limited scale of monotypes, however, he switched to painting on slick-surfaced plastic. Tom Bennett’s practice is rooted in the classical tradition where painting and drawing from life is highly regarded. Bennett’s work is heavily influenced by Francis Bacon, Frank Auberbauch and foremost his father, Harry Bennett, who was also an artist. Tom’s time living abroad in Spain and traveling through Eastern Europe and Africa provided the artistic freedom to explore many of the techniques and subject matter that continue to define his practice. Bennett was born and raised in Connecticut. His mediums include monotypes, oil on paper, canvas or styrene board. In a technique that Tom started over 4 years ago, several of his monotypes have been painted over with oil paint using a palette knife, brush, or his fingers to re-purpose the underlying image. These works are a testament to Bennett’s ability to quickly and concisely compose an image with expressive brush strokes, foreshortened figures and expertly rendered light. Tom’s work has been featured in group and solo exhibitions worldwide. Bennett lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He is currently represented by Tabla Rasa...

Monotype on paper

Monotype on paper Dramatic imagery from Tom Bennett’s series of black and white monotypes, blending surrealistic mindscapes with stark realism About Tom Bennett: With quick brushstr...

Monotype on paper Dramatic imagery from Tom Bennett’s series of monotypes, blending surrealistic mindscapes with stark realism About Tom Bennett: With quick brushstrokes, Tom Bennet...

Dimensions are for sheet size. The drawing is signed in pencil at the lower left. Agnes Weinrich was one of the artists who settled in Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, at the t...

Brown and black chalks and pencil on cream wove paper. Signed and dated in pencil, lower left recto.

An abstract expressionist miniature etching on paper depicting a bird on a fence, with abstract expressionist animals floating in the sky by R. Silve...

An abstract expressionist miniature etching on paper depicting insects with arrows forming a path from start to finish by artist R. Silvestrov (Russi...