Landscape Forms, 1961
oil on canvas
60 1/4 x 42 inches; 153 x 106.7 centimeters
Louis Stern Fine Arts is pleased to present Karl Benjamin: Paintings from 1950 - 1965. The exhibition opens with a reception for the artist from 6 to 9pm, Saturday, January 10 and continues through Saturday, April 10, 2004.
“Color is the subject matter of painting. It possesses a powerful emotive quality, unique in each individual. Regardless of style or content, color is the material from which paintings are made.” This understanding has guided the work of Karl Benjamin since the inception of his career as a painter in the early fifties.
A dazzling practitioner of what critic Jules Langsner termed “hard edge” painting and one of the four artists featured in the landmark 1959 “Abstract Classicists” exhibition, Benjamin fills each canvas with meticulously orchestrated color. A sharp-angled wedge of forest green lined by the tenderest block of spring green forms something like the feeling of a hill or does it? Benjamin’s intuitive sensitivity to the peculiar union of form and color produces works that defy reason and return the viewer to the purely sensual delight of seeing.
Karl Benjamin’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States and is included in a number of prestigious private and public collections. Louis Stern Fine Arts is the exclusive representative of his work and this exhibition marks his first with the gallery.