Billy Al Bengston

Bengston was born in Dodge City, Kansas, on June 7, 1934.{{cite web|title=Billy Al Bengston, Painter Who Channeled California Cool, Dies at 88|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/20/arts/billy-al-bengston-dead.html|last=Williams|first=Alex|work=The New York Times|date=October 20, 2022|access-date=October 20, 2022}} His family relocated to Los Angeles in 1948. He attended Los Angeles City College in 1952. Subsequently, he studied painting under Richard Diebenkorn and Saburo Hasegawa at the California College of Arts and Crafts, in Oakland, California, in 1955 and returned to Los Angeles to study at Otis Art Institute in 1956.{{cite news|title=Billy Al Bengston, Ferus Gallery pioneer and purveyor of custom car culture, dies at 88|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-10-10/billy-al-bengston-custom-car-culture-death|first=Jessica|last=Gelt|date=October 10, 2022|access-date=October 12, 2022|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}{{cite news|title=Billy Al Bengston, painter who epitomised the visual lexicon of California culture, has died, aged 88|url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/10/10/billy-al-bengston-obituary|first=Wallace|last=Ludel|date=October 10, 2022|access-date=October 12, 2021|newspaper=The Art Newspaper|location=London}}

Bengston began showing with the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles (founded and run by Walter Hopps and Edward Kienholz, and later Irving Blum), having five shows between 1958 and 1963. As a fixture at the gallery, he was among a cohort of artists that included Kienholz, Ed Ruscha, Larry Bell, Kenneth Price, Ed Moses, and Robert Irwin. (The gallery closed in 1966.){{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ubF1JKDMbnEC&dq=BENGSTON+FERUS+SHOW&pg=PA125 | isbn=9781606060728 | title=Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles Art, 1945-1980 | year=2011 | publisher=Getty Publications }} In a 2018 article in Vanity Fair, Bengston recalled that he and Irwin hung the 32 pieces in Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup-can paintings show at Ferus in 1962.{{cite web | url=https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/11/andy-warhols-campbells-soup-paintings-exhibition | title=How the Campbell's Soup Paintings Became Andy Warhol's Meal Ticket | website=Vanity Fair | date=5 November 2018 }} He notably described the atmosphere of Ferus as a "macho intellectual gang bang".{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-sep-22-ca-isenberg22-story.html | title=An L.A. Art Story | website=Los Angeles Times | date=22 September 2002 }}

After seeing the work of Jasper Johns at the 1958 Venice Biennale he adopted the motif of a set of sergeant's stripes. This recurring chevron image was painted with industrial materials and techniques associated with the decoration of motorcycle fuel tanks and surfboards.Thomas E. Crow, The Rise of the Sixties: American and European Art in the Era of Dissent, Laurence King Publishing, 2004, pp. 80–81. {{ISBN|1-85669-426-7}} According to Grace Glueck of The New York Times, Bengston "was among the first to ditch traditional oil paint on canvas, opting instead for sprayed layers of automobile lacquer on aluminum in soft colors, achieving a highly reflective, translucent surface."{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/18/arts/art-in-review-billy-al-bengston-dentos-and-draculas-1968-1973.html | title=ART IN REVIEW; Billy al Bengston – 'Dentos and Draculas, 1968–1973' | newspaper=The New York Times | date=18 May 2001 | last1=Glueck | first1=Grace }}

Bengston encouraged viewers in the early 1960s to associate his art with motorcycle subculture; on the cover of a 1961 catalogue for a Ferus show, he was seen straddling a motorcycle. (He also competed in motocross competitions.)Cécile Whiting, Pop L.A.: Art and the City in the 1960s, University of California Press, 2006, p. 94. {{ISBN|0-520-24460-5}} "When I painted these motorcycle paintings", Bengston later recalled, "I pissed people off beyond belief. I don't know why. They are just paintings. You don't have to look at them."{{cite web | url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/billy-al-bengston-dead-1234642496/ | title=Billy al Bengston, Giant of los Angeles's Postwar Art Scene, Dies at 88 | date=10 October 2022 }} Bengston also created humorous posters and advertisements for exhibitions which pulled on imagery of the film industry; and he distributed surveys soliciting "the question you would most like to have answered" (1970) and "I'm stuck, $10 for your idea ... for an exhibition mailer or announcement" (1973).{{Cite journal|last=Steinberg|first=Monica|date=April 2014|title=Incongruent Humor, Labor, and Public Fame in Postwar Los Angeles|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/aaa.53.1_2.43155541|journal=Archives of American Art Journal|language=en|volume=53|issue=1/2|pages=4–29|doi=10.1086/aaa.53.1_2.43155541|s2cid=192205983 |issn=0003-9853}} "A quality of the expansiveness of the physical environment as well as some of the brittle gloss and gaudiness of the aggressively manmade Los Angeles environment is acutely condensed in his work", John Coplans wrote in Artforum in 1965.

Thomas E. Crow drew attention to the deliberate contrast between Bengston's flamboyant, competitive, aggressively masculine stance and his delicate, modest approach to his art. Silhouettes of iris flowers, for instance, figure prominently in Bengston's paintings. In the 1960s, he often painted a single centrally placed flower (as he also did with the chevron), thus upending the widely held notion that putting an object in the center of a canvas should be avoided at all costs. "I've been doing that ever since year one", he said of this practice, "ever since I learned you shouldn't do it."{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/designla/la-design-la-ed-ruscha-billy-al-bengston-20190307-story.html | title=Q&A: Ed Ruscha & Billy al Bengston on art, friendship and their new show in South Korea | website=Los Angeles Times | date=7 March 2019 }} During the 1970s, Bengston began using multiple iris silhouettes, often surrounded by overlapping circles, as in Canopus Dracula (1977) in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art.Honolulu Museum of Art wall label, Canopus Dracula by Billy Al Bengston, 1977, acrylic on canvas, accession 2014-15-01

Bengston's spare compositions and elaborate yet untraditional processes caused some observers to associate him with the Finish Fetish movement, whose practitioners typically created sleek, smooth works. A 1967 review in Artforum noted that "Bengston's technique of spray application of lacquer has always appeared fresh, unique, and superb in its variety and complexity." The artist heightened the effect with unusual textures, as in his well-known "Dentos", works in which the aluminum upon which he created imagery was dented in unpredictable patterns.{{cite web | url=https://www.artforum.com/print/196705/billy-al-bengston-s-dentos-36724 | title=Billy al Bengston's "Dentos" }}

Bengston's first solo exhibition was at Ferus Gallery in 1958.[https://www.otis.edu/alumni/da/bengston.htm Otis College of Art Alumni Listing, accessed Aug 4, 2007] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070818165623/https://www.otis.edu/alumni/da/bengston.htm |date=August 18, 2007 }} His work has been the subject of major solo presentations at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas; and the Honolulu Museum of Art. In 2010 at Samuel Freeman Gallery, Bengston recreated this first solo exhibition, including a scale replica of the Ferus Gallery inside Freeman's space.{{Cite web|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/02/art-review-billy-al-bengston-at-samuel-freeman-gallery.html|title=Art review: Billy al Bengston at Samuel Freeman Gallery|date=19 February 2010}} Bengston's "moon paintings"—first exhibited at James Corcoran Gallery in 1990—were exhibited at Various Small Fires in 2017, after almost three decades out of the public eye.[http://www.lalamagdigital.com/i/882614-fall-2017/153 "Howling at the Moon Doggie", LALA Magazine, February 2017] In 2017, Bengston was the focus of the major retrospective California Dreaming: Ed Moses, Billy Al Bengston & Ed Ruscha at the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut.{{cite web|title=California Dreaming: Ed Moses, Billy Al Bengston & Ed Ruscha|url=https://nbmaa.org/exhibitions/california-dreaming-ed-moses-billy-al-bengston-ed-ruscha|publisher=New Britain Museum of American Art|access-date=October 12, 2022}} He received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (1967),{{cite web|title=Billy Al Bengston|url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.5905.html|access-date=October 12, 2022|publisher=National Gallery of Art}}{{cite web|title=National Endowment for the Arts: A History 1965– 2008|url=https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/nea-history-1965-2008.pdf|year=2008|page=21|editor-first=Mark|editor-last=Bauerlein|access-date=October 12, 2022|publisher=National Endowment for the Arts}} the Tamarind Lithography Workshop (1968, 1982, 1987),{{cite web|title=Billy Al Bengston Biography|url=http://www.artnet.com/artists/billy-al-bengston/biography|access-date=October 12, 2022|publisher=Artnet}} and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1975).{{cite web|title=Billy Al Bengston|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/billy-al-bengston/|publisher=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation|access-date=October 12, 2022}}

Bengston's work is included in a number of permanent collections including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. His work was also exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. until its closure in 2014.

Bengston is represented by the Various Small Fires gallery in Los Angeles and had exhibitions/representation in New York with the following galleries: Martha Jackson Gallery (1962), Acquavella Contemporary Art Gallery (1979, 1981, 1983), Renato Danese Gallery (2001), Franklin Parrasch Gallery (2005, 2014, 2016), Andrew Kreps Gallery (2016), and Venus Over Manhattan Gallery (2016).{{cite web |last1=Bengston |first1=Billy Al |title=Solo Exhibitions |url=http://billyal.com/solo.html |website=LABORATORY BILLY AL BENGSTON 1934 – |accessdate=3 May 2019}}

Billy Al Bengston died at the age of 88, on October 8, 2022, at his home in Venice and is survived by his wife of 28 years, Wendy Al, and their daughter, Blue Tica Bengston and grandchildren Billy Agnes and Hugo Ace Du Celliee Muller.  During the last few years of his life, he suffered from dementia and was the subject of a Silver Alert in November 2021, but after remembering his phone number was found happily holding court in the lobby of a Marina Del Rey Hotel. In spite of his struggles with dementia, he continued to paint up until his death and had an exhibition of his new work at Various Small Fires in Los Angeles in March 2022.

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.billyalbengston.com/ BillyAlBengston.com]
• [http://www.vsf.la/artist_post/billy-al-bengston/ Billy Al Bengston, Various Small Fires]
• [http://venusovermanhattan.com/artist/billy-al-bengston/ Billy Al Bengston, VENUS over Manhattan]
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/18/arts/art-in-review-billy-al-bengston-dentos-and-draculas-1968-1973.html review in New York Times]
• [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_5_39/ai_75577263 Billy Al Bengston in ArtForum]
• [http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/findingaids/bengbill.htm Billy Al Bengston Papers at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art]
• [http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/venice/arts-and-beats/billy-al-bengston---artist.html Billy Al Bengston – Artist on KCET Departures Venice]
• [https://eastofborneo.org/articles/decorative-arts-billy-al-bengston-and-frank-gehry-discuss-their-1968-collaboration-at-lacma/ Decorative Arts: Billy Al Bengston and Frank Gehry discuss their 1968 collaboration at LACMA]
• [http://www.bikemag.com/pavedmag/5-reasons-why-hes-billy-al-bengston-and-youre-not/#utkOiR6sUYWCiG49.97 5 Reasons Why He's Billy Al Bengston and You're Not – PAVED]

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Category:1934 births

Category:2022 deaths

Category:American printmakers

Category:Los Angeles City College alumni

Category:Sculptors from Los Angeles

Category:Artists from Kansas

Category:Deaths from dementia in California

Category:People from Dodge City, Kansas

Category:American contemporary artists

Category:American modern artists

Category:Otis College of Art and Design alumni

Category:Art in Greater Los Angeles