Joseph Raffael

New Beginnings

1982

Artist: Billy Al Bengston – American (1934-2022) Title: Untitled Year: 1990 Medium: Lithograph, silkscreen on Arches paper Sight size: 19.5 x 25.5 inches. Sheet size: 24 x 30 inches. Signature: Signed lower right Publisher: Cirrus Editions, Ltd., Los Angeles, CA Edition: 250 This one: 120/250 Condition: Excellent This print is by Billy Al Bengston. It depicts what looks like a coyote staring out at the horizon on a full moon night. This print was created at the same time Bengston was creating his Moon paintings. The print has dark colors. As a result, my photographs are imperfect; they have a bit of glare. The print is in excellent condition. It is attached by two hinges to a matboard measuring 26 x 32 inches and has a Plexiglas frame. The frame is in fair condition with some light scratches. Billy Al Bengston (June 7, 1934 – October 8, 2022) was an American visual artist and sculptor who lived and worked in Venice, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii. Bengston was probably best known for work he created that reflected California's "Kustom" car and motorcycle culture. He pioneered the use of sprayed layers of automobile lacquer in fine art and often used colors that were psychedelic and shapes that were mandala-like. ARTnews referred to Bengston as a "giant of Los Angeles's postwar art scene." Early life and education Bengston was born in Dodge City, Kansas, on June 7, 1934. His family relocated to Los Angeles in 1948. He attended Los Angeles City College in 1952. Subsequently, he studied painting under Richard Diebenkorn and Saburo Hasegawa at the California College of Arts and Crafts, in Oakland, California, in 1955 and returned to Los Angeles to study at Otis Art Institute in 1956. Career Bengston began showing with the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles (founded and run by Walter Hopps and Edward Kienholz, and later Irving Blum), having five shows between 1958 and 1963. As a fixture at the gallery, he was among a cohort of artists that included Kienholz, Ed Ruscha, Larry Bell, Kenneth Price, Ed Moses, and Robert Irwin. (The gallery closed in 1966.) In a 2018 article in Vanity Fair, Bengston recalled that he and Irwin hung the 32 pieces in Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup-can paintings show at Ferus in 1962. He notably described the atmosphere of Ferus as a "macho intellectual gang bang". After seeing the work of Jasper Johns at the 1958 Venice Biennale he adopted the motif of a set of sergeant's stripes. This recurring chevron image was painted with industrial materials and techniques associated with the decoration of motorcycle fuel tanks and surfboards. According to Grace Glueck of The New York Times, Bengston "was among the first to ditch traditional oil paint on canvas, opting instead for sprayed layers of automobile lacquer on aluminum in soft colors, achieving a highly reflective, translucent surface." Bengston encouraged viewers in the early 1960s to associate his art with motorcycle subculture; on the cover of a 1961 catalogue for a Ferus show, he was seen straddling a motorcycle. (He also competed in motocross competitions.) "When I painted these motorcycle paintings...

This artwork titled "A Tire d'Aile" 1986 is an original color etching with aquatint on Arches paper by French artist Jean Solombre, 1948-2005. It is hand...

This artwork "Two Horses" 1964, is an original color aquatint on paper by noted Indian artist Kaiko Moti, 1921-1989. It is hand signed and numbered 107/120 in pencil by the artist. ...

This artwork titled "Three Chidren" 1970 is an original color lithograph on B.F.K Rives paper by noted Italian/American artist Beniamino Benevenuto Bufano, 1890-1970. It is hand signed and numbered 14/50 in pencil by the artist. Published by First Impressions, San Francisco, printed by Fikrat Al-Khouri at First Impressions Graphic Society. The image size is 8.30 x 6.5 inches, framed size is 19.85 x 17.65 inches. it is beautifully custom framed in a wooden gold frame, with gold color spacer. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: Beniamino Benvenuto Bufano was born in San-Fele, Italy on Oct. 14, 1889. At age three Bufano's family brought him to NYC where he spent his childhood and was educated by private tutors. He studied at the ASL in NYC from 1913-15, the pupil of James L. Fraser, Herbert Adams, and Paul Manship. He came to San Francisco in 1915 to work on a sculpture for the PPIE. For awhile he worked in the studio of coppersmith Dirk van Erp. He then traveled extensively for four years in France, Italy, India, and China. After returning to San Francisco in 1921, he remained there the rest of his life except for visits to the Orient and Europe. Always a radical, he lost his teaching position at San Francisco Institute of Art in 1923 because he was too modern for the conservative faculty. He later taught at UC Berkeley and the CCAC (1964-65). Henry Miller wrote of him, "He will outlive our civilization and probably be better known, better understood, both as a man and artist, five thousand years hence." His work, simple in style and monumental in scale, includes smoothly rounded animals in granite and icons sheathed in stainless steel. Only five feet tall, Bufano was a controversial, free spirit until his death in San Francisco on Aug. 16, 1970. Member: SFAA; NSS; American Artists Congress. Exh: Whitney Museum (NYC), 1917; Arden Gallery...