Frank Bensing Figurative Paintings

Michael Tole says of his work… This work draws a connection between the didactic moralizing tendencies of Neo Classicism (represented in the style of the painting) and Modernism (represented in the architectural setting). Though modern art eschews the naturalistic imagery used by Neo Classicists, both movements pursued a self-important, austere, self-consciously masculine aesthetic that they saw as synonymous with virtue. Set in the MoMA courtyard, a passel of men lounge about, regarding a golden statue which looks terribly out of place in this modernist vitrine. The uncomfortable architectural setting, prisonlike and cold, provides a foil for the odalisque-like young men sprawled on hard stone benches and paying homage to the central idol. In my current work, The Revisionist Histories, I am writing letters to art history, literature, and mythology in an attempt to reflect the social changes that have reshaped our society over the past century.  As part of this agenda, I explore the evolution of gender norms, power dynamics, and representation within Western visual culture and what this implies for the negotiation between pleasure, justice, and our culturally specific discourse on beauty.    The seed for The Revisionist Histories was sewn when I caught a glimpse of my preteen daughters watching music videos on their iPad as I chopped veggies for dinner.  Out of the corner of my eye I caught glimpses of music videos featuring Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, and Doja Cat gyrating across the tiny screen.  A better parent might have snatched the iPad away, but I was overcome with hallucinatory visions of this pop diva...

Bold French gouache fashion sketch of a flowing wrap dress in deep red with floral detailing. Signed lower right. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold bor...

Small acrylic painting of a group of people gathered outside in front of small buildings in bold graphic lines by artist Elisabeth Hoffova, 1985. Signed lower left. Original one-of-...

Vintage acrylic portrait of a man with rake in a bold palette of greens and purple by French artist G. Lahousse, circa 1970. Signed lower right. Original one-of-a-kind vintage work...

Ginger Williams Cook says of her work... My previous solo exhibition, entitled Abundance of Apollo: The Celestial Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes of Greek Mythology, served as a point o...

Powerful French painting of red, black and white abstract faces in acrylic and ink, 2000. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Mat fits a standard...

Delightful gouache fashion sketch of a ballerina style dress in a deep forest green. Fabric swatch attached upper right. Signed lower left. Original ...

Gouache painting of elegant woman with bright blue boa, 1990s. Signed lower right. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with ...

This painting is a quietly luminous depiction of a snow-covered garden in winter, rendered in oil on canvas at H 23.6 in x W 28.7 in. Bare deciduous trees dominate the foreground and...

Ginger Williams Cook says of her work... My previous solo exhibition, entitled Abundance of Apollo: The Celestial Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes of Greek Mythology, served as a point o...

To evoke the French Riviera and the light of the South, a sketch made by Andrée de Frémont on the French Riviera has become canvas. It is camping a h...

Ginger Williams Cook says of her work... My previous solo exhibition, entitled Abundance of Apollo: The Celestial Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes of Greek Mythology, served as a point o...

Hope Hickman says of her work... I am tormented by aesthetic seduction, by what I can only call the romantic. My practice processes, through haptic intuition, the look of wealth, of...

Ginger Williams Cook says of her work... My previous solo exhibition, entitled Abundance of Apollo: The Celestial Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes of Greek Mythology, served as a point o...

Original Oil on Canvas by Konstantin Savchenko