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Suzanne Benton Paintings

American
Suzanne Benton is a celebrated pioneer feminist activist artist who has worked in 32 countries worldwide as a metal mask maker, mask performance artist, sculptor, printmaker, painter, lecturer and workshop leader. Her seven decades-long art life continues to evolve. She is currently writing the memoir, The Spirit of Hope. Born, raised and educated in NYC (Queens College, Fine Arts alum), Suzanne Benton is a printmaker, painter, metal sculptor, mask maker/performance artist, lecturer, and workshop leader. Believing the purpose of art is to explore humanity, and that art comes alive when it relates to people’s lives, Benton has been drawn to multicultural themes steeped in myth, ritual, and archetype. This work oftentimes engages participation. Bridging cultures, venues featuring Benton's artworks and performances, have stretched from New York City to villages in remote parts of Africa, India, and Nepal, as well as philosophy and education portals from Calcutta to Cambridge. A former Fulbright Scholar (India), recipient of many grants, artist residencies, and hostings by the cultural arm US Embassies, her worldwide travels began with a 1976 to 1977 yearlong journey as a feminist pioneer to 14 countries where she welded metal masks, developed and performed what became Journey Tales, and led mask and story workshops. That pattern, spurred on by wanderlust and curiosity has brought her to Bali, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, England, Germany, Greece, Holland, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. Beyond exhibiting widely (150+ solo shows and representation in museums, and private collections worldwide), I’m the author of The Art of Welded Sculpture and numerous articles. the artist has been listed in, among others Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Art, and Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975, edited by Barbara Love, 2006.  As a journeying artist, Benton has sought to filter the treasures of newness, of sharing, spectacle, friendship and insight into her artwork. In this ninth decade of life, and as a working artist for nearly 70 years, the artist will give occasional mask performances (March 9 at the Leepa-Rattner Museum, Tarpon Springs, FL) , in addition to her printmaking, is painting in a Late Style that arrived as a surprise during the Covid pandemic. The resultant aloneness from sheltering in place brought an uncanny level of solitude that only painting could voice. Reaching for the purist of colors, she then entered a celebratory world of Neo-Transcendental paintings called All About Color while continuing to write her memoir, The Spirit of Hope.
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Artist: Suzanne Benton
Suzanne Benton, Flyaway, 2021, oil on canvas, Spiritualism
By Suzanne Benton
Located in Darien, CT
In this ninth decade of life, and as a working artist for nearly70 years, Suzanne Benton has become interested in the concept of Late Style as described by the literary theorist Edwa...
Category

2010s Orphist Suzanne Benton Paintings

Materials

Oil

Suzanne Benton, Shine On, 2021, oil on canvas, Neo-Transcendentalism
By Suzanne Benton
Located in Darien, CT
In this ninth decade of life, and as a working artist for nearly70 years, Suzanne Benton has become interested in the concept of Late Style as described by the literary theorist Edwa...
Category

2010s Orphist Suzanne Benton Paintings

Materials

Oil

Suzanne Benton, Passage, 2022, oil on linen, Spiritualism
By Suzanne Benton
Located in Darien, CT
In this ninth decade of life, and as a working artist for nearly70 years, Suzanne Benton has become interested in the concept of Late Style as described by the literary theorist Edwa...
Category

2010s Orphist Suzanne Benton Paintings

Materials

Gesso, Birch, Oil, Board

Suzanne Benton, Compendium, 2024, oil on canvas, Neo-Transcendentalism
By Suzanne Benton
Located in Darien, CT
In this ninth decade of life, and as a working artist for nearly70 years, Suzanne Benton has become interested in the concept of Late Style as described by the literary theorist Edwa...
Category

2010s Orphist Suzanne Benton Paintings

Materials

Oil

Suzanne Benton, Centering, 2022, oil on panel, Neo-Transcendentalism
By Suzanne Benton
Located in Darien, CT
In this ninth decade of life, and as a working artist for nearly70 years, Suzanne Benton has become interested in the concept of Late Style as described by the literary theorist Edwa...
Category

2010s Orphist Suzanne Benton Paintings

Materials

Oil

Suzanne Benton, Hope, 2023, oil on linen, Spiritualism
By Suzanne Benton
Located in Darien, CT
In this ninth decade of life, and as a working artist for nearly70 years, Suzanne Benton has become interested in the concept of Late Style as described by the literary theorist Edward Said. “Each of us can supply evidence of late works, which crown a lifetime of aesthetic endeavor,” Matisse had it with his renowned paper cuts. While nearly blind, Monet created the water lily paintings as his final legacy to the history of art.  Benton's Late Style arrived as a surprise during the Covid pandemic. The resultant aloneness from sheltering in place brought her to an uncanny level of solitude that only painting could voice. She reached for the purest of colors, and entered a celebratory world to create the Neo-Transcendental paintings titled All About Color. The disappeared narrative came as a surprise. It had been the mainstay of the masks and mask tale performances, monoprints and paintings. This time though, the artist needed to bring a vibrancy to canvas, and to make tangible this sense of sheer essence that had pressed into her inner self in that time of stillness. Well educated in color by John Ferren, the abstract expressionist painter who’d taught the year’s color study at Queen College. The sensitivity developed further through four lengthy art-working journeys to India, starting in 1976-77, continuing with a 1992-1993 Fulbright, and additional South Asia residencies in 1995, and 2011. Those and others in Africa brought an ever more attuned palette to decades of monoprints with Chine collé that featured imagery from world culture, as well as her Americana of 19th and 20th century women writers, educators, suffragists, and feminists. These Late Style artworks explore the cosmic realm. Its deceptive simplicity reminds Benton of Buffie Johnson’s late work. She, an early celebrator of Great Goddess imagery turned to circles in her latter years. similarly, Benton had drawn on rich Goddess imagery since the 1970’s...
Category

2010s Orphist Suzanne Benton Paintings

Materials

Gesso, Birch, Oil, Board

Suzanne Benton, Heavenly Kingdom, 2022, oil on Belle Art primed panel, Transcend
By Suzanne Benton
Located in Darien, CT
In this ninth decade of life, and as a working artist for nearly70 years, Suzanne Benton has become interested in the concept of Late Style as described by the literary theorist Edwa...
Category

2010s Symbolist Suzanne Benton Paintings

Materials

Oil

Suzanne Benton, Blue Mauve, 2022, oil on linen, Spiritualism
By Suzanne Benton
Located in Darien, CT
In this ninth decade of life, and as a working artist for nearly70 years, Suzanne Benton has become interested in the concept of Late Style as described by the literary theorist Edward Said. “Each of us can supply evidence of late works, which crown a lifetime of aesthetic endeavor,” Matisse had it with his renowned paper cuts. While nearly blind, Monet created the water lily paintings as his final legacy to the history of art.  Benton's Late Style arrived as a surprise during the Covid pandemic. The resultant aloneness from sheltering in place brought her to an uncanny level of solitude that only painting could voice. She reached for the purest of colors, and entered a celebratory world to create the Neo-Transcendental paintings titled All About Color. The disappeared narrative came as a surprise. It had been the mainstay of the masks and mask tale performances, monoprints and paintings. This time though, the artist needed to bring a vibrancy to canvas, and to make tangible this sense of sheer essence that had pressed into her inner self in that time of stillness. Well educated in color by John Ferren, the abstract expressionist painter who’d taught the year’s color study at Queen College. The sensitivity developed further through four lengthy art-working journeys to India, starting in 1976-77, continuing with a 1992-1993 Fulbright, and additional South Asia residencies in 1995, and 2011. Those and others in Africa brought an ever more attuned palette to decades of monoprints with Chine collé that featured imagery from world culture, as well as her Americana of 19th and 20th century women writers, educators, suffragists, and feminists. These Late Style artworks explore the cosmic realm. Its deceptive simplicity reminds Benton of Buffie Johnson’s late work. She, an early celebrator of Great Goddess imagery turned to circles in her latter years. similarly, Benton had drawn on rich Goddess imagery since the 1970’s...
Category

2010s Orphist Suzanne Benton Paintings

Materials

Oil, Linen

Suzanne Benton, Approach, 2022, oil on gesso board, Neo-Transcendentalism
By Suzanne Benton
Located in Darien, CT
In this ninth decade of life, and as a working artist for nearly70 years, Suzanne Benton has become interested in the concept of Late Style as described by the literary theorist Edwa...
Category

2010s Orphist Suzanne Benton Paintings

Materials

Oil

Suzanne Benton, Before We Knew, 2024, oil on gessoed birch panel, Spiritualism
By Suzanne Benton
Located in Darien, CT
In this ninth decade of life, and as a working artist for nearly70 years, Suzanne Benton has become interested in the concept of Late Style as described by the literary theorist Edward Said. “Each of us can supply evidence of late works, which crown a lifetime of aesthetic endeavor,” Matisse had it with his renowned paper cuts. While nearly blind, Monet created the water lily paintings as his final legacy to the history of art.  Benton's Late Style arrived as a surprise during the Covid pandemic. The resultant aloneness from sheltering in place brought her to an uncanny level of solitude that only painting could voice. She reached for the purest of colors, and entered a celebratory world to create the Neo-Transcendental paintings titled All About Color. The disappeared narrative came as a surprise. It had been the mainstay of the masks and mask tale performances, monoprints and paintings. This time though, the artist needed to bring a vibrancy to canvas, and to make tangible this sense of sheer essence that had pressed into her inner self in that time of stillness. Well educated in color by John Ferren, the abstract expressionist painter who’d taught the year’s color study at Queen College. The sensitivity developed further through four lengthy art-working journeys to India, starting in 1976-77, continuing with a 1992-1993 Fulbright, and additional South Asia residencies in 1995, and 2011. Those and others in Africa brought an ever more attuned palette to decades of monoprints with Chine collé that featured imagery from world culture, as well as her Americana of 19th and 20th century women writers, educators, suffragists, and feminists. These Late Style artworks explore the cosmic realm. Its deceptive simplicity reminds Benton of Buffie Johnson’s late work. She, an early celebrator of Great Goddess imagery turned to circles in her latter years. similarly, Benton had drawn on rich Goddess imagery since the 1970’s...
Category

2010s Orphist Suzanne Benton Paintings

Materials

Gesso, Birch, Oil, Board

Suzanne Benton, Caught in the Dark Waters of Life, 2024, oil, Spiritualism
By Suzanne Benton
Located in Darien, CT
In this ninth decade of life, and as a working artist for nearly70 years, Suzanne Benton has become interested in the concept of Late Style as described by the literary theorist Edward Said. “Each of us can supply evidence of late works, which crown a lifetime of aesthetic endeavor,” Matisse had it with his renowned paper cuts. While nearly blind, Monet created the water lily paintings as his final legacy to the history of art.  Benton's Late Style arrived as a surprise during the Covid pandemic. The resultant aloneness from sheltering in place brought her to an uncanny level of solitude that only painting could voice. She reached for the purest of colors, and entered a celebratory world to create the Neo-Transcendental paintings titled All About Color. The disappeared narrative came as a surprise. It had been the mainstay of the masks and mask tale performances, monoprints and paintings. This time though, the artist needed to bring a vibrancy to canvas, and to make tangible this sense of sheer essence that had pressed into her inner self in that time of stillness. Well educated in color by John Ferren, the abstract expressionist painter who’d taught the year’s color study at Queen College. The sensitivity developed further through four lengthy art-working journeys to India, starting in 1976-77, continuing with a 1992-1993 Fulbright, and additional South Asia residencies in 1995, and 2011. Those and others in Africa brought an ever more attuned palette to decades of monoprints with Chine collé that featured imagery from world culture, as well as her Americana of 19th and 20th century women writers, educators, suffragists, and feminists. These Late Style artworks explore the cosmic realm. Its deceptive simplicity reminds Benton of Buffie Johnson’s late work. She, an early celebrator of Great Goddess imagery turned to circles in her latter years. similarly, Benton had drawn on rich Goddess imagery since the 1970’s...
Category

2010s Orphist Suzanne Benton Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board, Gesso, Birch

Suzanne Benton, Rescue, 2020, oil on board, Spiritualism
By Suzanne Benton
Located in Darien, CT
In this ninth decade of life, and as a working artist for nearly70 years, Suzanne Benton has become interested in the concept of Late Style as described by the literary theorist Edward Said. “Each of us can supply evidence of late works, which crown a lifetime of aesthetic endeavor,” Matisse had it with his renowned paper cuts. While nearly blind, Monet created the water lily paintings as his final legacy to the history of art.  Benton's Late Style arrived as a surprise during the Covid pandemic. The resultant aloneness from sheltering in place brought her to an uncanny level of solitude that only painting could voice. She reached for the purest of colors, and entered a celebratory world to create the Neo-Transcendental paintings titled All About Color. The disappeared narrative came as a surprise. It had been the mainstay of the masks and mask tale performances, monoprints and paintings. This time though, the artist needed to bring a vibrancy to canvas, and to make tangible this sense of sheer essence that had pressed into her inner self in that time of stillness. Well educated in color by John Ferren, the abstract expressionist painter who’d taught the year’s color study at Queen College. The sensitivity developed further through four lengthy art-working journeys to India, starting in 1976-77, continuing with a 1992-1993 Fulbright, and additional South Asia residencies in 1995, and 2011. Those and others in Africa brought an ever more attuned palette to decades of monoprints with Chine collé that featured imagery from world culture, as well as her Americana of 19th and 20th century women writers, educators, suffragists, and feminists. These Late Style artworks explore the cosmic realm. Its deceptive simplicity reminds Benton of Buffie Johnson’s late work. She, an early celebrator of Great Goddess imagery turned to circles in her latter years. similarly, Benton had drawn on rich Goddess imagery since the 1970’s...
Category

2010s Orphist Suzanne Benton Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Suzanne Benton, Forecast, 2024, oil on canvas, Spiritualism
By Suzanne Benton
Located in Darien, CT
In this ninth decade of life, and as a working artist for nearly70 years, Suzanne Benton has become interested in the concept of Late Style as described by the literary theorist Edward Said. “Each of us can supply evidence of late works, which crown a lifetime of aesthetic endeavor,” Matisse had it with his renowned paper cuts. While nearly blind, Monet created the water lily paintings as his final legacy to the history of art.  Benton's Late Style arrived as a surprise during the Covid pandemic. The resultant aloneness from sheltering in place brought her to an uncanny level of solitude that only painting could voice. She reached for the purest of colors, and entered a celebratory world to create the Neo-Transcendental paintings titled All About Color. The disappeared narrative came as a surprise. It had been the mainstay of the masks and mask tale performances, monoprints and paintings. This time though, the artist needed to bring a vibrancy to canvas, and to make tangible this sense of sheer essence that had pressed into her inner self in that time of stillness. Well educated in color by John Ferren, the abstract expressionist painter who’d taught the year’s color study at Queen College. The sensitivity developed further through four lengthy art-working journeys to India, starting in 1976-77, continuing with a 1992-1993 Fulbright, and additional South Asia residencies in 1995, and 2011. Those and others in Africa brought an ever more attuned palette to decades of monoprints with Chine collé that featured imagery from world culture, as well as her Americana of 19th and 20th century women writers, educators, suffragists, and feminists. These Late Style artworks explore the cosmic realm. Its deceptive simplicity reminds Benton of Buffie Johnson’s late work. She, an early celebrator of Great Goddess imagery turned to circles in her latter years. similarly, Benton had drawn on rich Goddess imagery since the 1970’s...
Category

2010s Orphist Suzanne Benton Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Suzanne Benton, Soft Thunder, 2021, oil on canvas, Spiritualism
By Suzanne Benton
Located in Darien, CT
In this ninth decade of life, and as a working artist for nearly70 years, Suzanne Benton has become interested in the concept of Late Style as described by the literary theorist Edward Said. “Each of us can supply evidence of late works, which crown a lifetime of aesthetic endeavor,” Matisse had it with his renowned paper cuts. While nearly blind, Monet created the water lily paintings as his final legacy to the history of art.  Benton's Late Style arrived as a surprise during the Covid pandemic. The resultant aloneness from sheltering in place brought her to an uncanny level of solitude that only painting could voice. She reached for the purest of colors, and entered a celebratory world to create the Neo-Transcendental paintings titled All About Color. The disappeared narrative came as a surprise. It had been the mainstay of the masks and mask tale performances, monoprints and paintings. This time though, the artist needed to bring a vibrancy to canvas, and to make tangible this sense of sheer essence that had pressed into her inner self in that time of stillness. Well educated in color by John Ferren, the abstract expressionist painter who’d taught the year’s color study at Queen College. The sensitivity developed further through four lengthy art-working journeys to India, starting in 1976-77, continuing with a 1992-1993 Fulbright, and additional South Asia residencies in 1995, and 2011. Those and others in Africa brought an ever more attuned palette to decades of monoprints with Chine collé that featured imagery from world culture, as well as her Americana of 19th and 20th century women writers, educators, suffragists, and feminists. These Late Style artworks explore the cosmic realm. Its deceptive simplicity reminds Benton of Buffie Johnson’s late work. She, an early celebrator of Great Goddess imagery turned to circles in her latter years. similarly, Benton had drawn on rich Goddess imagery since the 1970’s...
Category

2010s Orphist Suzanne Benton Paintings

Materials

Oil

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