Max Benjamin… A Road Well Travelled
Max Benjamin was born in San Diego in 1928. After serving in the Navy, he used his GI benefits to study art at the University of Washington.
In 1959, with a young family in tow, he traded the security of a job at Boeing for a log cabin, down a long winding road, through 100 wooded acres on Guemes Island. To Paint.
In order to do so he also raised cattle and took odd jobs including a stint as a longshoreman.
Max has always travelled his own road. Early on his paintings had more in common with NY’s Abstract Expressionism or European art moments than the prevalent Northwest mystical style. He has stayed true to his style for 61 years. He still lives in that now expanded log cabin. And every day he paints.
Max Benjamin’s energy and enthusiasm made this project a delight to produce. Thank you Max.
Susan Parke
Guest Curator
Director Emeritus
Untitled, no date, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
Max Benjamin, Untitled, no date, oil on canvas
Relentlessly independent in his forms, style, and method, Max Benjamin shares more with the European painters of the early 20th century - the modernist abstractionists who valued expressionism over illusionism - than with the then prevailing “mystic” painters of the Northwest region where he has made his home for more than sixty years. During his studies at the University of Washington School of Art in the 1950s, Benjamin was part of the second generation that learned from Paris trained painters Ambrose Patterson and Walter F. Issacs…
… Sublimated landscapes soon gave way to more abstract, monumental paintings comprised of non-referential colors, jagged lines, and a focus upon the surface of the canvas, where foreground and background carry equal weight. Like Kandinsky, Benjamin found inspiration in music, pure abstraction, and golf coloration for the dynamic compositions of his middle and later periods.
Kathleen Moles
MoNA curator 2016
CCXLII, 1995, Oil on canvas; MoNA, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alex Chung
L to R: 379, 378, 614; 1976, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
…Throughout the various moments of Northwest art history, Max Benjamin has stayed true to his own personal mandate of painting inner sensations in his unique, expressionistic way, that stand the test of time and continually engage the mind and the eye of the viewer.
Kathleen Moles
MoNA curator 2016
… Benjamin mixes colors and applies many thin layers to the canvas. His works are never really finished until they see, as he’s likely at any time to revise them. He doesn’t sign them on the front, remarking, “I’ve spent years on them, why would I mess them up?” - and he designates them by number and year. “Did Beethoven name is sonatas,” he asks. “No, the names were given later, by others. When a painting sells, the owners can put a title on it, do any damn thing they want.”
Stephen Hunter
2012
Untitled, 2010, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
L to R: 379, 378, 614; 1976, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
Sonata Series, 2002-2010, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
CCXXXIV, no date, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
Artist's Palette, Mixed media; Courtesy of the Artist
614, 1976, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
378, 2004, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
379, 2014, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled, 1973, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
CCCXXVII, 2002, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled, no date, Kiln formed glass; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled, 2017, Kiln formed glass; Collection of Diana and Steve Klein
Untitled, no date, Pastel on paper
Destination #9, no date, Pastel on paper; Courtesy of the Artist
RL4, no date, Pastel on paper; Collection of Joanna Sikes
Open Space 5, no date, Pastel on paper; Courtesy of the Artist
Sky Series #6, no date, Pastel on paper; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled, 1992, Pastel on paper; Courtesy of the Artist
Encounter #7, no date, Pastel on paper; Courtesy of the Artist
Processions, 1992, Pastel on paper; Collection of Michele and Al Lesmeister
Pressure Points, 1991, Pastel on paper; Collection of Michele and Al Lesmeister
Encounter #9, no date, Pastel on paper; Collection of Paul Morehead
Guemes Island, 1991, Pastel on paper; Collection of Michele and Al Lesmeister
Guemes Island, 1998, Pastel on paper; Collection of Michele and Al Lesmeister
Untitled, no date, Pastel on paper
Untitled, 1993, Pastel on paper; Courtesy of the Artist
Encounter #4, no date, Pastel on paper; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled (Merry Christmas), no date, Pastel on paper; Collection of Paul Morehead
Destination #7, no date, Pastel on paper; Courtesy of the Artist
Sky Series #1, no date, Pastel on paper; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled, no date, Pastel on paper; Collection of Michele and Al Lesmeister
Sky Series #4, no date, Pastel on paper; Courtesy of the Artist
CCXXXVII, 1994, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
354, no date, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
373, no date, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled, no date, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
CCGXLI, 2002-2010, Oil on canvas; MoNA, gift of the Artist and Thresa Benjamin
CCCXXXIV, 2002-2010, Oil on canvas; MoNA, gift of the Artist and Thresa Benjamin
CCCXXXII, 2002-2010, Oil on canvas; MoNA, gift of the Artist and Thresa Benjamin
CCCXXXIII, 2002-2010, Oil on canvas; MoNA, gift of the Artist and Thresa Benjamin
307, 2000, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
367, 2012, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
352, 2010, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
348, 2009, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
CCXLII, 1995, Oil on canvas; MoNA, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alex Chung
353, 2010, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
351, 2009, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled, no date, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
CCCXXVII, 2009, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled, no date, Kiln formed glass; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled, 2018, Kiln formed glass; Collection of Diana and Steve Klein
CCXXVI, no date, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
CCXXVIII, no date, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
CCXX, no date, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled, no date, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled, no date, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
CCCXVII, 2002, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled, no date, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
CCCX, 2000, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
CCCIX, 2000, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled 2010, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
CCCXIV, 2001, Oil on canvas; Collection of Selina and Derek Wyman
Untitled, no date, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled (Kent State), May 1970, Oil on canvas; MoNA, gift of Charles Stavig
CLXLI, 1990, Oil on canvas; Collection of Paul Morehead
Still Life, 1961-63, oil on canvas; MoNA, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Moore
Still Life, 1962, Oil on board; MoNA, gift of Gloria and Donald Wampler
Still Life, 1962, Oil on board; MoNA, gift of Gloria and Donald Wampler
XLVII, 1980, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
CXXII, 1986, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled, no date, Oil on canvas; MoNA permanent collection
Untitled, 1968, Oil on canvas; Collection of Chris and Allen Elliott
Untitled, no date, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
Untitled, no date, Oil on canvas; Courtesy of the Artist
CCIC, no date, Oil on canvas; Collection of Ann Magnano and Sherri Boddy