Marriage

“Lili” Billy Al Bengston, an American born in 1934. Bengston created a work of art on Acrylic Canvas called "Lili," created in 1983. It was a figurative tradition of Hawaii’s visual culture and Bengston' life there. The running figure depicts himself, an avid athlete who jogged the islands daily. It shows that he ran in the presence of the Hawaiian Kahunas (Gods), which stand silhouetted in conversation against the deep Blue Sea. During the early 1950s, Bengstons work of art soon became central to art in Southern California by combining Pop Art with color field painting. "Flood" 1967, Helen Frankenthaler, also uses Synthetic polymer on canvas with acrylic painting. Both these artist have similar techniques in creating a fine piece of pop art. Her sense of work was staining her canvases with oil and acrylic which created such an intense atmospheric painting to generate as Flood. Frankenthaler worked on the floor and she poured paint directly on the canvas, she was able to make the painting seem spontaneous, even though it was 124 x 140 inches, a large scale of work similar to Frankenthaler. Frankenthaler uses materials used to make plastic mixed with turpentine. Bengston and Frankenthaler both seem to appear to have similar elements of abstract pieces of work by using an extremely versatile and fast drying paint known as acrylic paint. Both artist have very similar techniques that creates an art work using water colors and oil painting which gives a unique characteristic style thats not attainable with other media, and this gives them a different sense of abstract style.  I noticed Bengston uses line throughout his piece, relatively to its width which defines space that creates an outline of a person, pattern and story. It implies movement and structure but no type of texture, mass or volume. He uses composition, which applies to any work of art, it is the placement and arrangement in his work of art that conducts a “putting together” structure. Bengstons art piece made him a very effusive abstract expressionist by representing "Swaggering," "Sentimental" and "Pop Art" which soon became literal to numerous artists in the 1950s. The artwork includes colors of black, blue, orange, red, and yellow. The unity of these colors are created by using different shades of the same basic color. It creates a positive effect by making the painting a more realistic feeling. Excitement, energy, intense, stability, joy, idealism, imagination, energy, balance, confidence, security, and unity were all the emotions I felt when I first viewed his piece. Many of his large-scaled works depict blue, red, brilliant sunsets and yellow. Many people began to notice Bengston was “A confirmed modernist and an admirer of Matisse, Bengston believes his work is predominantly about line and color.  He has worked in many exotic places, in California, Mexico and Hawaii. He seems to be able to do it all:  paint full-time, maintain a strenuous physical pace, and find constant new outlets for his whimsical, forthright ideas.” (Perchuk 2) Which shows that beauty was perhaps not the primary concern to him but of painters in the 1950s and 1960s. While working, he figured out a new technique of painting that allowed him to express emotions through the use of color, light, and space, abstract art using acrylic on canvas. I discovered that Bengston uses action painting which is abstract expression art, performance piece, and temporal art. The elements on this painting consists of a design coverage to create a equal distribution known as balance and symmetry. Bengston uses geometric formats and repetition of imagery in many of his arts, they’re material meditations on sensual colors. Many people have trouble understanding this type of art, Abstract Expressionism. I think that the artist is trying to say that abstract expressionism have designs, shapes and colors. When I first saw Bengstons piece, I had no idea what I was actually seeing until I had a sense of the colors painted, shapes, and designs in my mind. I observed that there were seven different faces on the paintings that looked illusional. An artwork that is unique with a level of creativity and vision for viewers gives the obvious “optical illusion”. In the end, I feel that Bengston art inspired many artists on creating abstract and pop art to the industry. His unique style was extremely influential, and helped to usher in age in which a number of abstract movements were established, one after another: Cubism, Futurism, Vorticism, Neoplasticism, Dadaism, Surrealism, etc. One of the purposes of art is to allow indirect access to our inner psyche and I noticed Bengston uses a sense to create art when viewed by an observer, it evokes unconscious feelings and emotions. I think the artist is trying to say is that abstract works has potential to be very powerful to keep the conscious distractions to a minimum and we can call it as, well-defined art. Works Cited "Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active before 1945)" AskART, www.askart.com, accessed Oct. 11, 2007; Who’s Who in American Art. New York: American Federation of Arts, 1936-1970, 1976; Art Inventories Cat; Plagens, Peter.  Sunshine Muse: Contemporary Art on the West Coast. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1974. Channin, Richard. "Billy Al Bengston at Thomas Babeor." Art in America Jan. 1988: 145+. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 3 June. 1999. "Helen Frankenthaler." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 11 April. 2010. "Helen Frankenthaler." UXL Biographies. Detroit: UXL, 2003. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 10 Dec. 2006. Mike Boehm. "Billy Al Bengston at Samuel Freeman Gallery." Los Angeles Times February 19, 2010, Edition 1: Page 1. Perchuk, Andrew. "Billy Al Bengston." Artforum International 39.5 (2001): 143.Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 18 Nov. 2010. Weissman, Benjamin. "Billy Al Bengston, James Corcoran Gallery." Artforum International 27.7 (1989): 143. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 19 Feb. 2003.