The exhibition will include a range of geometric and organic abstract paintings made between 1958-1991, as well as over twenty unique lithographs from 1949-1950.
Frederick Hammersley, La Louver, Venice, CA
Karl Benjamin and the Evolution of Abstraction: 1950-1980, Louis Stern Fine Art, West Hollywood, CA
Karl Benjamin did not set out to become one of the founding fathers of Hard Edge painting. His plan was to write. However, in 1950 while attempting to offer art instruction, along with reading and writing, to his classroom of sixth graders, Karl Benjamin discovered painting, switched his allegiance to the visual arts and the rest is history.
Alex Couwenberg: Waimea, Royale Projects, Indian Wells, CA
November 28, 2009 – January 2, 2010 Alex Couwenberg, who was honored with the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation Award in 2007, continues to expand his visual lexicon in a solo exhibition of new work at Royale Projects. The Los Angeles Times recently described his paintings as “sleek, multilayered, spatially sophisticated compositions”, but these words barely scratch the meticulously finished surface. Comparisons to the renown Abstract Classicists of the midcentury are inevitable. This is in part [...]
Frederick Hammersley (1919-2009): In Memoriam
Frederick Hammersley, abstract painter, born in 1919, died peacefully on Sunday, May 31, 2009 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the age of 90. Hammersley is known as one of the Los Angeles-based “Abstract Classicists” whose work gained international attention through the exhibition Four Abstract Classicists at the Los Angeles County Museum in 1959. The term “hard edge” was coined at the time to describe the geometric, abstract paintings by Hammersley, Karl Benjamin, Lorser Feitelson and John McLaughlin. Hammersley attended [...]
New American Abstraction: 1960-1975, Gary Snyder Gallery, New York, NY
Installation view November 8 – December 20, 2008 Participating artists: Richard Anuszkiewicz, Karl Benjamin, Leon Berkowitz, Ilya Bolotowsky, Hilton Brown, Lawrence Calcagno, Clarence Carter, Francis Celentano, Roy Colmer, Gene Davis, Thomas Downing, Paul Feeley, Frederick Hammersley, Ward Jackson, Tadaaki Kuwayama, Lyman Kipp, Beatrice Mandelman, Howard Mehring, Rakuko Naito, Ray Parker, Milton Resnick, Max Schnitzler, Vivian Springford, Albert Stadler, Sidney Wolfson, Jack Youngerman
An Interview with Karl Benjamin, by Julie Karabenick, Geoform.net
Karl Benjamin, Red, Yellow, Green, 1957 Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches
Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury, Orange County Museum of Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Julius Shulman, Photograph of Case Study House #22 (Pierre Koenig, architect, Los Angeles, 1959–60), 1960 October 7, 2007 — January 6, 2008 Birth of the Cool examines the broad cultural zeitgeist of “cool” that influenced the visual arts, graphic and decorative arts, architecture, music, and film produced in California in the 1950s and early 1960s. The widespread influences of such midcentury architects and designers as Harry Bertoia, Charles and Ray Eames, John Lautner, and [...]
After Image: Op Art of the 1960s, Jacobson Howard Gallery
Alexander Liberman, Omega IX, 1961 March 8 — April 28, 2007 In addition to being the Year of the Pig, it also appears to be the year of Op Art. Another great survey exhibition including Yaacov Agam, Josef Albers, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Hannes Beckmann, Fletcher Benton, Karl Benjamin, Francis Celentano, Tony Conrad, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Benjamin Cunningham, Gene Davis, Jose de Rivera, Julio Le Parc, Leroy Lamis, Alexander Liberman, François Morellet, Kenneth Noland, Larry Poons, Bridget [...]