10 Art Shows to See in Los Angeles This October
by Matt Stromberg
Karl Benjamin was among the founders of the Hard Edge Painting movement, a West Coast variant of post-painterly abstraction that also included Lorser Feitelson, Frederick Hammersley, and John McLaughlin. Timed with the 100th anniversary of his birth, this exhibition brings together Benjamin’s work from the 1950s, produced before the seminal 1959 show Four Abstract Classicists, curated by critic Jules Langsner, that marked the birth of the Hard Edge movement. The paintings on view trace the artist’s experimentation with various styles such as expressionism and cubism — developmental steps leading to the crisp, cool style that eventually became his hallmark.