ARTIST: SUZANNE BENTON
Art Histories are highly curated presentations of an artists’ life’s work provided for appreciators today, scholars of tomorrow, and generations to come.
Suzanne Benton is a native New Yorker who has shared her multi-faceted feminist activist art over many decades in 32 countries. She has had over 175 solo shows and representation in museums and private collections worldwide. Suzanne is a highly recognized metal mask maker and mask performance artist, printmaker, painter, lecturer, and workshop leader. A trans-culturalist and feminist pioneer based in the States, her venues have stretched from New York City to villages in remote parts of Africa, India, and Nepal, and to philosophy and education portals from Calcutta to Cambridge.
A former Fulbright Scholar (India), she’s received many grants and artist residencies, including numerous hostings by the cultural arm of US Embassies. Her unique artwork has carried her worldwide since 1976, sharing her work in Bali, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Canada, Hong Kong, Denmark, Egypt, England, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, South Korea, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, Yugoslavia. Author of The Art of Welded Sculpture and numerous articles, the artist is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Art, and Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975, Edited by Barbara Love, 2006.
“I found my medium, the welding torch, the great transformer. It brought me into a cosmic world. I had to live in that sphere of consciousness every day, watching, making the metal move according to my will, my intuition, my brain; I was enchanted by the repetitive actions and the shapes as they appeared before me.”
COLLECTION: Metal MASKS & PERFORMANCES
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Artist Statement
Masking has filled my life as an artist and allowed me to connect with people throughout the world. Beyond my life as a studio artist, this work has enabled me to bring people into the world of masks where they share revealing stories that deepen our awareness of the humanity of their lives and cultures. In so doing, I've found a remarkable way to bridge the ancient forms of mask making and storytelling with a contemporary concern for people's lives.
PUBLICATION
Suzanne Benton:
Spirit of Hope: Selected Works from 1963 to 2003
by Suzanne Benton
Published by Silvermine Guild Arts Center
ISBN: 978-0972858014
PUBLICATION
The Art of Welded Sculpture
by Suzanne Benton
Published by Van Nostrand Reinhold
ISBN: 978-0442206925
PUBLICATION
Feminists Who Changed America
1963-1975
Edited by Barbara J. Love
Foreward by Nancy F. Cott
Published by University of Illinois Press
EISBN: 978-0-252-09747-8
PUBLICATION
Suzanne Benton: Myths, Masks, Legends & Lifestory
PUBLICATION
Dear Friends and Allies
The Journey Letters of a Traveling Artist
by Suzanne Benton
PUBLICATION
Our Fabulous Feminists
by Veteran Feminists of America, Inc.
COLLECTION: SCULPTURE
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Suzanne Benton created over 700 welded steel and bronze metal sculpture works and masks. With a BA from Queens College (CUNY) in Fine Arts, Benton went on to study welded sculpture at the Silvermine School of Art, New Canaan, CT in 1965. She'd thought she'd created her last masks in 1996 to bring to Sarajevo and Zenica, Bosnia one year after the war, to lead mask and story workshops with refugee women and youth. But then in 2011, she worked in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2011, leading a welding sculpture workshop at the Sculpture Department, Dhaka University. There she created two new welded masks during demonstrations for the students. Most recently, she's been creating copper and paper pulp masks, and copper, bronze, and cor-ten steel steles. Her artworks are in public and private collections worldwide.
COLLECTION: MONOPRINTS with chine colle
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Suzanne Benton began her unique style of monoprint-making (one-of-a-kind prints) with Chine colle (glued paper collage) in 1983 while a resident artist in Koln, Germany.
In her art-working world travels, series draw on Indian, Hebrew, Medieval and Turkish miniature and manuscript painting; South Asian Folk Art; Korean Lore & Legend; The Renaissance; Russian Icons; Greek mythology; 19th Century Women Writers, 19th century Educators and Feminist Activists; North and West Africa; Afro-Americans; Native Americana. and most resently, From Paintings in Proust. She also works with family portraits and landscape imagery.
The artist works on her 30 by 50 inch Charles Brand press. The colle; papers are hand-made, pre-inked and hand-painted. Collagraphic printing plates are inked individually for each print, and emboss a complex and rich texture onto the prints. Images and colle papers are dusted with an archival book-binding glue and placed face down on the plate. The collage papers adhere to the sheet of etching paper as the plate and paper are run through the etching press. The resultant monoprints range in size from quarter to extra large printmaking paper.
PUBLICATION
From Paintings in Proust
Artworks by Suzanne Benton
Essay by Suzanne Ryan
ISBN: 978-1364744359
PUBLICATION
Suzanne B enton
Face & Figure:
Selected Works, 1955-2005
COLLECTION: PAINTINGS
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Collection: WORLD CULTURE: India & Bangladesh
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PRESS
Suzanne Benton, All About Color solo exhibition, The Westport Library, 2023 © Suzanne Benton 2023
Amie Potsic interviews artist Suzanne Benton about her award-winning work that spans over 60 years of feminist sculpture, performance, printmaking, and a new exhibition of paintings.
Mask Tale Performance: Suzanne Benton
Suzanne Benton performs at the Leepa Rattner Museum, March 2024
Art Reception: Suzanne Benton, All About Color
Suzanne Benton and Miggs Burroughs discuss Suzanne Benton's current Solo Exhibition, All About Color, The Westport Library, November 2023
Suzanne Benton: Rise to the Occasion
82 Years of Courage and Counting
Talk at CreativeMornings St. Pete, March 2018
Highlights Include:
From Facebook to thousands: St. Peterburg's women's march quickly gained momentum
Written By Tracey McManus
Suzanne Benton, inadvertently founded the St. Petersburg march for women's and human rights when she called for a local counterpart to the national march on the Women's March on Washington Facebook page. She is a longtime activist and artist. Photo by Jesus Ward, Bushwick, NY
WCA 50th Anniversary Interviews: Suzanne Benton
Art Insights
Art + Culture + Criticism
© Suzanne Benton, Amaterasu, performance mask, bronze on steel, (Japanese folk tale), 19.5 x 17 x 10 inches, 1979
The Power of Aging Creatively:
8 Artists Over 80
Written by Cynthia Close
Suzanne Benton with her bronze and steel Persephone mask
© Photo by Larry Miller
We Never Know Where Our Drops May Lead
Interview with Suzanne Benton by Editor-in-Chief Lauren Bender and Interviews Editor Bette Jane Camp
© Suzanne Benton, Mary Rozet Smith, monoprint with Chine collé, 18 1/8 x 13 1/8 inches, 1992
A new exhibition featuring the welded-metal masks of artist Suzanne Benton celebrates the indomitable female spirit
Written by Cynthia Close
Suzanne Benton wearing mask of Sarah, steel, 12 x 14 x 13 inches © Photo by Lele Stevens
© Suzanne Benton, Lucy Larcom, monoprint with Chine collé, 18 ½”_x 12 ¾”, 1992
To acquire artwork from Suzanne Benton’s collection, email info@amiepotsicartadvisory.com.
Click here to download Suzanne Benton’s CV.
To learn more about the artist: www.suzannebentonartist.com.
Banner Image: © Suzanne Benton, Perdita, bronze on steel, 12 x 10.5 x 5 inches, (Shakespeare series performance mask), 1982, Private Collection
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