Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 6

Karl Benjamin
Untitled (Highrise)

1954

$18,000
£13,602.54
€15,924.38
CA$25,136.55
A$28,280.92
CHF 14,984.33
MX$349,233.64
NOK 183,692.04
SEK 176,502.72
DKK 118,786.35
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

Untitled (Highrise), 1954, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 20 x 20 inches, presented in its original frame Karl Benjamin was a California-based artist who is best known for his hard-edged abstractions. Born in Chicago, Benjamin began his undergraduate studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 1943. With the continuation of World War II, Benjamin left school and served in the US Navy. After the war, he resumed his studies at the University of Redlands in 1946. Benjamin graduated in 1949 with a BA degree in English literature, history and philosophy and began his career as a public school teacher. In 1952, he relocated to Claremont California and the trajectory of his life took a significant turn when he began "playing" with paint. Although Benjamin continued to teach in public schools and Pomona College, he pursued a career as a professional artist at a time the Los Angeles art scene was coming into its own on the back of a booming post-war economy and the development of a uniquely California form of "cool" art and design. By 1954, the year of the present work, Benjamin began to develop a hard-edge vocabulary as his paintings were accepted into prominent exhibitions. Benjamin's work was included in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's ground-breaking 1959 exhibition Four Abstract Classicists: Karl Benjamin, Lorser Feitelson, Frederick Hammersley and John McLaughlin. Benjamin's work was also included in the exhibit Purist Painting which traveled to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse and the Columbus Museum of Art. The Whitney Museum used his work in Geometric Abstraction in America. The Museum of Modern Art (NY) also featured the artist in their watershed exhibit The Responsive Eye. Benjamin's paintings are in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art, Israel, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, Seattle Art Museum, WA, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY among many others. He is listed in Who Was Who in American Art and all other standard references.
  • Creator:
    Karl Benjamin (1925 - 2012, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1954
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 20 in (50.8 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
  • More Editions & Sizes:
    20 x 20 Price: $18,000
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1859215629302

More From This Seller

View All
The Orchestra
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The Orchestra, 1950, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left, 21 1/2 x 25 3/4 inches, labeled verso “Brown University, Trustee, The Walter Feldman Trust for Artwork” titled verso,...
Category

1950s Abstract Geometric Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Ledge
By Georgina Klitgaard
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Georgina Klitgaard (1893 – 1976) The Ledge, by 1931, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 32 1/8 x 50 1/8 inches, exhibited: 1) 44th Annual Exhibition of American Paintings & Sculptur...
Category

1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Johnny Walker’s Place
By Georgina Klitgaard
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Johnny Walker’s Place, by 1929, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 34 x 42 inches, exhibited 1) 28th International Exhibition of Paintings, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, Octobe...
Category

1920s American Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Gracie Mansion
By Isabella Banks Markell
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Gracie Mansion, c. 1944, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 25 x 30 inches, presented in a newer frame Isabella Markell was a painter, etcher, and sculptor, who is best known for ...
Category

1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Church in Trees
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This painting is part of our exhibition Charles Goeller: A Wistful Loneliness. Oil on canvas, 13 x 9 inches, Signed lower left
Category

1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Highway Derelict
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Highway Derelict, May, 1939, oil on canvas board, signed upper right, 18 x 20 inches, exhibited 1) Society of Independent Artists, American Society of Fine Arts (Art Students League), New York, NY, April 19 – May 12, 1940, no. 535 (noted verso, listed in catalog, and see Kantner, Dorothy, Palette Palaver, Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph, April 19, 1940 – “Helen F. Price and Ethel M. Dean, the former of Johnstown, the latter of this city, are two members of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh who are represented in the Independent Artist’s Exhibition which opens today in New York. Miss Price is represented by . . . ‘Highway Derelict’ . . . .”), 2) Solo Exhibition of Log Cabin Paintings...
Category

1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

You May Also Like

Early Female Modernist Geometric Hard Edge Abstract Original Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nicely painted mid century hard edge abstract by Gabrielle Roos. Oil on canvas. Signed verso.
Category

1960s Hard-Edge Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Large Early Female Modernist Geometric Hard Edge Abstract Original Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Nicely painted mid century hard edge abstract by Gabrielle Roos. Oil on canvas. Signed verso.
Category

1960s Hard-Edge Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid-Century "The Red Village" Pierre Bosco #50 F (Italy/France, 1909-1993)
By Pierre Bosco
Located in SANTA FE, NM
Mid-Century "The Red Village" #50 F Pierre Bosco (Italy/France, 1909-1993) Oil on canvas 12 x 10 inches, frame size “The savage art of Bosco bears its rudeness and its mystery. It ...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Abstract impressionist expressive nature floral oil canvas "Summer Meadow"
Located in VÉNISSIEUX, FR
This contemporary abstract expressionist piece with a touch of impressionism was created by French artist Natalya Mougenot and belongs to her evocative series dedicated to the beauty...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Original Triptych-Moonlit Jardin d'Hiver 1, 2, 3-British Awarded Artist-Impasto
Located in London, GB
Jardin d'Hiver Series is Shizico Yi's latest works for GSY Studio Gallery Summer Exhibition 2025, this set including 3 paintings. This series created in her winter studio while longi...
Category

2010s Abstract Impressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gesso, Canvas, Oil, Acrylic

Original-Purple Misty Alliums-British Awarded Artist-impasto-oil-plein air
Located in London, GB
This beloved painting marks Shizico Yi’s return to painting en plein air in her garden after a long, chilly winter and an unusually hot spring. At last, the weather softened—invitin...
Category

2010s Abstract Impressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Gesso, Canvas, Oil, Acrylic