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  • Design Credit: Samantha Todhunter Design Ltd., Photo Credit: Oliver Clarke. Dimensions: H 20 in. x W 24 in.
  • Design Credit: Lucy Harris Studio, Photo Credit: Francesco Bertocci. Dimensions: H 20 in. x W 24 in.
  • Design Credit: Timothy Godbold, Photo Credit: Karl Simone. Dimensions: H 20 in. x W 24 in.
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Ben Benn
Modernist Family Outing with Dog (Picnic in the Park) Ben Benn Oil Painting WPA

1946

$4,800

About

Genre: Modern Subject: People Medium: Acrylic Surface: Canvas Country: United States Dimensions: 20" x 24" Scene of a family leisurely gathering together in a park to picnic and enjoying their day by the artist Ben Benn. Ben Benn, Russian/American (1884-1983) Ben Benn, a Russian-born American still-life and Post Impressionist landscape painter who was part of the first generation of artists in America to try to digest the lessons of Cubism Benn Benn was a pioneer American modernist whose independent style defied stylistic classification. Despite excursions into Cubism and Abstract Expressionist style, 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.” 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 in the Russian empire in 1884. This town was the regional capital of an area in what is today, SW Ukraine, and was historically known as Podolia. the Rosenberg family chose, along with thousands of others, to immigrate from Podolia to the United States in 1894 or 1899. “Between 1904 and 1908 Benn attended the National Academy of Design and he studied at the Arts Students League In New York City. He spent most of his career in New York City including memberships with the American Society of Painters and Sculptors, American Artists Congress and the Woodstock Artist Association. Academy curriculum stressed portraiture built up with broad, painterly brushstrokes, a technique that remained the foundation of Benn’s style. In his first group show, in 1913, he exhibited with Max Weber and Man Ray. By the mid teens his canvases were bolder in color and more decorative in style. In 1916, Benn participated in the important "Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painters" at the Anderson Galleries, along with artists Thomas Hart Benton, Oscar Bluemner, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Man Ray, Abraham Walkowitz, and others. It was organized largely in reaction to the Armory show of 1913. The exhibition was important in advancing the cause of modern art in America, particularly the American avant-garde and was later reprised by the Whitney museum in 1983. Benn also exhibited at the first annual exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists (1917) Best known as a modern painter who assimilated in his early style the influences of Matisse, Picasso, and Kandinsky, Benn's first one-man show was held at the J. B. Neumann Gallery in 1925. Portraits, still-lifes, and landscapes formed the core of Benn's subject themes and he often shifted between abstract and figurative images. He is known for his strong joyful colors, thick brush strokes and energetic paintings. the 1930’s the artist also depicted urban scenes, yet, unlike the Social Realists, his work was more an affirmation than a critical commentary on the human condition.” Hilton Kramer, former art critic for The New York Times, wrote in 1967, “A certain distinction accrues to any painter able to maintain a persistent personal vision and aesthetic quality Ben Benn is one of the happy exceptions to the rule… There is a wonderful vigor, an exemplary professionalism and elan, that has been characteristic of his art for many decades.” A Benn painting is also “the only American artist represented in the great Kreisler Collection in the Hague, Holland, which houses the finest Van Gogh paintings.” He was a member of the WPA. During its eight years of operation, it would include within its ranks such iconic artists as Adolph Gottlieb, William Gropper, Philip Guston, Morris Kantor, Lee Krasner, Louise Nevelson, Diego Rivera, Mark Rothko, Ben Shahn, the Soyers (Isaac, Moses, and Raphael), and many other Jewish artists. Mr. Benn had one-man shows at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Jewish Museum in New York and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington. He participated in group shows at the Museum of Modern Art in 1933 and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1950. His work is in the permanent collections of the Whitney, the Met, the Hirshhorn, the Walker and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Mr. Benn was a member of the National Academy of Design. In 1951, he was given the Schiedt Award by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Details

  • Creator
    Ben Benn (1905 - 1989, Polish)
  • Creation Year
    1946
  • Dimensions
    Height: 20 in. (50.8 cm)Width: 24 in. (60.96 cm)
  • Medium
    Canvas,Oil
  • Movement & Style
    Expressionist
  • Period
    Mid-20th Century
  • Condition
    some age wear and needs to be framed and possibly stretched.
  • Gallery Location
    Surfside, FL
  • Reference Number
    1stDibs: LU3822041843

Shipping & Returns

  • Shipping
    Ships From: Surfside, FL
  • Return Policy

    A return for this item may be initiated within 3 days of delivery.

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