All about the Benjamin
Claremont painter Karl Benjamin is suddenly ubiquitous (look it up), and that's a good thing. The New York Times had a piece on him Sunday (read it here), with an online slideshow to boot (view it here).
And the L.A. Times today notes he has work in a midcentury show at the Orange County Museum of Art (read that here). The LAT says the work of Benjamin and other "hard edge" painters "is about egalitarian perceptual liberation." I have no idea what this means. But I do know that I really dug Benjamin's show at the Claremont Museum of Art this summer.
As it happens, I got a very nice letter -- not an e-mail, a letter -- from Karl the other day. Among other topics, he touted the brand-new dba 256 wine bar/art gallery in Pomona, at 256 S. Main at Third Street (read about them here). I visited there on Wednesday and will have an item in Friday's column.
Perhaps Prof. Benjamin's history with Pomona College was foreseen by that principal (referenced in the New York Times article) who asked him to "add 47 minutes a week of art instruction to the curriculum," 47 being Pomona's lucky number.
[Ah, the famous 47 pops up again! Good catch, Wendy. -- DA]