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Catalog Data

Creator:
Benton, Fletcher Chapman, 1931-  Search this
Subject:
Louchheim, Marlene  Search this
Lucie-Smith, Edward  Search this
Finn, David  Search this
Jones, Lillian E.  Search this
Bury, Pol  Search this
De Wilde, Dan  Search this
Wilke, Ulfert  Search this
Valentine, DeWain  Search this
Tooker, Dan  Search this
Sanders, Pieter  Search this
Rickey, George  Search this
Neubert, George W.  Search this
Marquand, Ed  Search this
Galerie Denino  Search this
André Emmerich Gallery  Search this
Type:
Interviews
Motion pictures (visual works)
Drawings
Video recordings
Transcripts
Sound recordings
Photographs
Christmas cards
Place of publication, production, or execution:
United States
Physical Description:
8.7 Linear feet; 1.47 Gigabytes
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as nine series. Series 1: Biographical Material (0.3 linear feet; boxes 1, 9) Series 2: Correspondence (1 linear foot; boxes 1, 2, OV 10) Series 3: Interviews (0.3 linear feet; box 2) Series 4: Exhibition and Commission Files (2 linear feet, 0.50 GB; boxes 2-4, OV 11-13, RD 14, FC 15, ER01) Series 5: Printed Materials (2.3 linear feet; boxes 4-6, OV 10) Series 6: Broadcast Materials (1.1 linear foot; boxes 6-7) Series 7: Photographic and Moving Image Materials (0.5 linear feet, 0.97 GB; boxes 7, 9, FC 16-17, ER02) Series 8: Artwork (1 item; box 7) Series 9: An American Artist Video Recordings (0.6 linear feet; boxes 7-8)
Access Note / Rights:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of audiovisual material without a duplicate copy requires advanced notice.
Summary:
The papers of sculptor and painter Fletcher Benton measure 8.2 linear feet and 1.47 GB and date from 1934 to 2014. They document his career as a sculptor with international presence through certificates, personal photographs, legal papers, correspondence, exhibition and commission documentation, clippings, exhibition-related printed materials, broadcast materials, publications about his work, an editioned kinetic Christmas card, and photographs, sound and video recordings, and motion picture film documenting his work and career.
Citation:
Fletcher Benton papers, 1934-2014. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Funding:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program.
Use Note:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Fletcher Benton conducted by Paul J. Karlstrom, 1989 May 2-4 is available on the Archives of American Art website.
Biography Note:
Fletcher Benton was born in Jackson, Ohio in 1931 to Fletcher and Nell Cavett Benton and was the oldest of three children. Benton graduated from Jackson High School in 1949. After serving in the Navy he graduated from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) in 1956 and moved to San Francisco, where he started working as an instructor at the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1959. He was in San Francisco during the flourishing of the Beat generation, where he had a studio in the North beach area and exhibited at coffee house galleries.
After travelling around Europe in 1960, Benton moved to New York City where he tried to make his living through painting and teaching privately. During those years he was supported by Jackson's local arts patron and family friend, Lillian E. Jones. In 1960 he had his first solo exhibition at Gump's gallery in San Francisco, but his work was taken down after one day because it was considered obscene for including female nudes. He returned to San Francisco in late 1961.
In 1966 Fletcher started teaching at the San Francisco Art Institute and established himself as a primary figure of American kinetic art. In 1966, Peter Selz included his work in the exhibition Directions in Kinetic Sculpture at the University Art Gallery in Berkeley, CA. During the exhibition Benton met the artists Pol Bury and George Rickey with whom he became friends. The exhibition, along with an article "The Movement Movement" that appeared in Time magazine the same year, established Benton's reputation as a significant American Kinetic artist. He also started teaching at the California State University in San José in 1967 where he continued working until 1986.
By 1974 Benton abandoned kinetic art to continue exploring sculpture in three dimensions in a style that became known as "new constructivism." The artworks were conceived in the series Folded Circles and Folded Square Alphabets and were produced in bronze, aluminum and steel. It was also during the 1970s that he started doing large-scale commissions such as the 1977 IBM commission.
Between 1981 and 1984 Benton constructed his studio in Dore Street in the Market district of San Francisco where he continues to work today. During the 1980s Benton started his Balanced/Unbalanced series, which introduced the idea of gravity using geometric forms in different formats and sizes.
From 1984 he began to show more work in Europe, especially in Germany, where in 1993 he got a major commission to create a colossal public sculpture in Cologne entitled Steel Watercolor Triangle Ring. It was also in Germany where Benton encountered the work of Wassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich, and he began work on his Construct Relief series in reponse, which he dedicated to Kandinsky. These geometric constructions are flat, canvas-like steel structures that combine features of painting and sculpture. As the series evolved, the work became more like painting, constructed to hang on the wall without a back piece, so they seem to be floating in the space.
Benton continues to live and work in San Francisco and is represented by multiple galleries in the United States and Germany.
Language Note:
English; German; Norwegian; Spanish; Korean; Japanese; Dutch; Portuguese.
Provenance:
Donated 2005-2006 and 2014 by Fletcher Benton. Benton's wife, Bobbie Benton, organized the material by subject matter and date.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Topic:
Artists' studios -- Photographs  Search this
Theme:
Lives of artists  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)13352
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)251862
AAA_collcode_bentflet
Theme:
Lives of artists
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_251862