This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Ben Benn, born in Russia and a pioneer American modernist, was best
known for his bold simplification, restrained use of intense, Fauvist
color, and Cezannesque composition.
He was a pupil at the
National Academy of Design and the Art Students League, and memberships
included American Society of Painters and Sculptors, American Artists
Congress and the Woodstock Artist Association. He spent most of
his career in New York City where he died in 1883.
He exhibited
extensively including one-man shows at the Walker Art Center in
Minneapolis, the Jewish Museum in New York and the Hirshorn Museum in
Washington, D.C.
A portrait by Benn of New York Judge J. Planken has been at the New
York City courthouse, and a still-life painting is in the Kroeller
Collection in The Hague in Holland.
Sources include:
Glenn Opitz, Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers
Peter Falk, Who Was Who in American Art
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Biography from Higgins Maxwell Gallery:
| Ben Benn had addresses in New York City from 1894-on. He studied at the Arts Students League and at the National Academy of Design, 1904-1908. His first important exhibition was the Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painters, 1916.
He had solo shows in New York City at the Neumann Gallery in 1925 and four at the Babcock Gallery between 1960 and 1970. He also exhibited at Columbia University in 1927; Whitney Museum of American Art, 1927-50; Corcoran Gallery, 1932, 1957; the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, 1942, 1952, and was awarded a medal that year at the
the Pennsylvania Academy's 147th Annual Exhibition, and another there in 1966.
Other exhibitions included "The Decade of the Armory Show: New Directions in American Art, 1910-1920; the Whitney Museum of American Art's traveling exhibition, 1963-64;
and many more important exhibitions of American Moderism.
His work is part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art; The Whitney; Newark Mus.; Baltimore Mus.; Albany Institute of Art, NY; Butler Art Inst., Youngstown, Ohio; Knoxville Art Center; and the University of Minnesota.
Source: Peter Falk, "Who Was Who in American Art" |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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Ben Benn is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Fauves/Fauvism
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