Gershon Benjamin (1899 - 1985) Romania
Watercolor on Paper
Measure 9"in H x 13"in W and 17 1/2"in H x 21 1/2"in W with frame

Known for: Portrait, landscape, still life and urban scene paintings
Biography: A painter of portraits, landscapes, still lives, and the urban scene, Gershon Benjamin sustained an active career for over seven decades. Consistently dedicated to an artistic expression that was personal and honest, Benjamin was not commercially motivated and never wanted to compete with other artists for notoriety. Although many of his artist-cohorts became famous, notably his close friend Milton Avery, Benjamin was content simply to be able to paint, supported by a job in the art department of the New York Sun. Indeed, it was due to this perspective that his life's work has remained largely unknown. In his work, drawing on his academic background and many European modernist influences, Benjamin distilled the exhaustive array of visual stimuli that he encountered into reductive, thoughtful images, using form and color to encapsulate his emotive responses to his subjects. He evolved a distinctive style in which he combined a lyrical chromaticism with simplified designs and two-dimensional shapes, achieving a subtle balance between realism and abstraction with which he sought to capture the essence, or universal truth, of his subjects. He viewed his art as a means of expressing personal emotion; as he put it, "To feel is to know and to know is to feel; all my paintings represent that through color, line, and subject." As the introduction to the catalogue from his first solo show, held in 1934, aptly stated: his "theory embraces a precise expressionism" and commented that in his "nuanced studies you will encounter the evasive, evocative personality of the true searcher after the emotional 'mot juste.'" Born in Romania in 1899, Benjamin moved with his family to Canada two years later, settling in Montreal. He began studying art when he was ten, taking classes at the Council of Arts and Manufacturers of the Province of Quebec. Among his teachers was the prominent French-born, Italian-trained painter Edmond Dyonnet. In 1913 he was admitted to the Royal Canadian Academy, where he was taught and encouraged by the Scottish-born painter William Brymner, who was also president of the academy. Leaving school when was fourteen, Benjamin became engaged as an apprentice at an advertising firm, where he learned the engraving techniques. He parlayed his skills into a job in 1918 for the Montreal Star, where he was hired as the art director. He also taught evening drawing classes to children at the Peretz School in Montreal. Even after the Benjamins moved from the Lincoln Arcade at the end of 1929, he maintained his association with Avery and the artists who congregated around him. In fact, the group grew closer after 1930, when the artists who continued to explore stylistic modes of European modernism, were increasingly outside the mainstream, characterized by the Regionalist works created by artists who concurred with the notion that American artists should focus on American subject matter and find a distinctive American identity. In the early 1930s, Benjamin spent time during the summers in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he joined Avery, Gottlieb, and other artists in drawing inspiration from Cape Ann's lively harbors and shores. In the late 1930s, Benjamin continued to receive recognition and attention. He exhibited at the Society of Independent Artists and the Salons of America, and in March 1937, a one-man show of his paintings and gouaches was held at Contemporary Arts, New York, located on 58th Street. The show was praised in the press. Howard Devree noted in the New York Times that Benjamin had made an "auspicious debut" in "landscape and figure works" in which he displayed "an excellent grasp of pictorial terms." A commentator for Art News stated that Benjamin was an artist who had "passed his novitiate" and observed that his "broad, sketchy treatment of brush and wash, somber tones of a low key, and vague nuances" gave his paintings "a romantic nostalgia that is . . . akin to the work of the Neo-Romanticist. From 1945 to 1947, Benjamin exhibited his work at Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, where he was work was shown alongside that of Avery, Marsden Hartley, Louise Bourgeois, and Alfred Maurer. In the late 1940s Benjamin shifted the center of his attention to his home in Free Acres, New Jersey, at the base of the Watchung Mountains, where he had begun to summer in 1936. After the Sun closed in 1950, Benjamin spent a few jobless years, but he returned to work three years later, taking a similar job for the New York Telegraph. He and Zelda resided permanently in Free Acres after his retirement in 1963. In the years that followed, the couple traveled to Europe and the West Coast, and Benjamin continued to paint until his death in 1985.

All lots offered are sold "As Is"

For condition report please contact our auction house via email info.coralgablesauction@yahoo.com

Any lots which remain on Coral Gables Auction premises longer than 30 business days following the sale will incur a charge for storage and handling of $5.00 per day for each lot. All paid items left after 3 months will be considered abandoned property and properly disposed of

Important Message Regarding Payments : All invoices that exceed the amount of $ 2000 including the buyer premium, must make the payment through check or wire transfer, if we receive the payment through the platform, the money will be reimbursed automatically to your card

Coral Gables Auction strongly encourages in-person inspection of items by the bidder

Statements by Coral Gables Auction regarding the condition of objects are for guidance only And should Not be relied upon as statements of fact, and do Not constitute a representation, warranty, Or assumption of liability by Coral Gables Auction