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Fletcher Benton
Synchronetic
L-110 Sculpture, 1969, #80 of 100
Sold
Fletcher Benton, Sculptor, B. 1931
Fletcher Benton
was a part of the Beatnik movement in San Francisco during the ‘50s and ‘60s
working as a sign painter by day and an expressionist artist (painting) by
night. In 1961, he had a solo exhibition at the California Palace Legion of
Honor, showing his portraits of fellow artists like David Simpson and William
Morehouse. Frustrated with the limitations of paint on canvas, Benton began to
work with movement in geometric pattern pieces and boxes which he was familiar
with from his work in commercial signs. This was at the beginning of the
kinetic movement; Benton worked largely in isolation, unaware of other efforts
of kinetic artists. His early works of this series were exhibited at Gump’s
Gallery in San Francisco.
In
the late 1970s, he abandoned kinetic art, switching to a more traditional media
for sculpture: bronze and steel.[5] These works are designed to be viewed from
all angles and have often been characterized as new constructivism; he
continues to work in this style today. Some of his most popular series in this
style are the Folded Square Alphabets and Numericals, Folded Circle, Donuts,
and Steel Watercolors.
Benton
has large-scale steel sculptures permanently installed world-wide including San
Francisco’s Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, Grounds For Sculpture sculpture
park in Hamilton, NJ, the city of Cologne, Germany, the city of
Berlin, among others.
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