Page 32 - Studio International - September 1966

not and does not prohibit discursive content. ings with that of his sculptures, and even the formal and
The visual language Benjamin has been developing for colour elements he uses in them, it would soon be obvious
himself is of greater complexity than one might think at that any terminology that places these intimately con-
first glance. Its technical constituents themselves cover a nected pursuits into separate art areas is more a hind-
wide range and his idiom embodies many influences of rance to understanding than a help.
disparate kinds, from science as well as from high and So as well as fashioning his hard/soft, deep/shallow,
low art. The most striking thing about it, however, is its quick/slow, bright/dark configurations on canvas, he has
coherence within its variety. Benjamin's time in Italy, begun to produce them in three dimensions by means of
1960-1, has obviously functioned as the essential turning- plastics. These brilliant new works have an emphatic
point in his development. The work done in the last six spatial presence in that they compete bodily with our-
years has changed continuously, astonishingly so, but it selves for Lebensraum, and this is an obvious respect in
takes only a partial look through the paintings and draw- which they differ from the paintings, but a more import-
ings of these years to show their inner cohesion. Not only ant difference—or rather, a particularly important new
does Benjamin concern himself continuously with the visual element which they have brought into Benjamin's
same sorts of pictorial structure, using the canvas as the work—lies in the reflecting function of the plastic
location for mysterious, brief but somehow necessary material. Again it is characteristic of him that the
encounters, but even his more detailed formal elements moment one refers to a new element one recognizes it
recur over the years. In the most recent pictures I have also in his earlier productions: he has frequently used
even noticed a return to images which I had thought areas of silver in his paintings. But now it is not merely
belonged exclusively to his pre-1960 period. But why light that is reflected but images in light, and these
should I be surprised by this? It is never wise to write images are ourselves and the things around us, mobile
finis to any phase of an artist's working life, and in his and mutated figurations that contribute transiently to
particular case, where experiential factors are so import- the total, stable work. There is a poetic fitness about this
ant that one could aptly speak of an autobiographical that, joined to the sheer visual joy offered by these
art, we must expect to find a non-chronological use objects, lifts them on to a very high plane of artistic
of material as in remembering and dreaming. achievement. Yet their richness is the product of means
I have not yet referred to the most recent event in that are astonishingly simple. Benjamin attains here the
Benjamin's career. He has, it will be said, 'turned' to perfect fulfilment of his intention: to find an essentially
sculpture. In fact he made a variety of modelled and visual form for experiences directly related to mental and
carved (and coloured) sculpture several years ago. More physical life.
important is the fact that he continues to paint. He would
Below, Drawing 1964, Indian ink and coloured pencils,
also stress that he does not like the word sculpture for the
23 x 30 in., and bottom, Drawing 1965, Pencil and coloured
three-dimensional things he makes. This, although a pencils and Indian ink, 23 x 30 in.
common complaint in recent years, is particularly justi-
fied in his case. Paintings could scarcely be less sculptural
than Benjamin's, particularly the most recent ones, yet
if one was to compare the spatial quality of his paint-

Drawing 1966
Coloured crayons and coloured pencil
23 x 30 in.