Fletcher C. Benton was an American sculptor and painter from San Francisco, California. Benton was widely known for his kinetic art as well as his large-scale steel abstract geometric sculptures.
Life
Born in the coal, nugget and iron-producing district of southern Ohio, Benton was a successful sign painter as a youth. After serving time in the Navy, he graduated from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1956. Thereafter he moved to San Francisco, and began as an instructor at the California College of Arts and Crafts and then went to Europe, traveling by his motorcycle through Scandinavia, Holland, Belgium and France; he spent some time in Paris and then in New York and later moved back to San Francisco. 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 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. 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.
de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, Fletcher Benton, Going Around the Corner with X, 2008, painted steel, Gift of the artist with assistance from Paula Kirkeby, in honor of William Rewak, S.J., 2013.4.1.
Representation
Fletcher Benton is currently represented by: Yares Art, New York City Yares Art Projects, Santa Fe, NM Riva Yares Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ Imago Galleries, Palm Desert, CA Jean Albano Gallery, Chicago, IL Galerie B. Haasner, Heusenstamm, Germany McClain Gallery, Houston, TX Bivins Gallery, Dallas, TX Tasende Gallery, La Jolla, CA
Works
Tilted Donut Wedge with Two Balls, Besselpark, Berlin
In 2008, Fletcher Benton was a recipient of the International Sculpture Center's Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award. In 1993 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Miami University at the Miami University Art Museum. His sculpture Folded Circle Two Squares was the founding piece and one of the signature sculptures of the Miami University's 3 acre Sculpture Park which now features works by Mark di Suvero, Nancy Holt, and among others. In 1995, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters by the University of Rio Grande, located in Gallia County, Ohio.
Interviews
KQED Spark segment on Fletcher Benton. Original air date: March 2008. Karlstrom, Paul. Smithsonian Archives of American Art. Oral history interview with Fletcher Benton, 1989 May 2–4. . Original airdate: October, 2010.
