작품 상세

Fletcher Benton (American/California, b. 1931), "Folded Square Alphabet O", 1979, steel, signed, dated, and titled lower center of reverse, h. 38 in., w. 33 1/2 in., d. 35 in. Provenance: Property of the New Orleans Museum of Art, Sold to Benefit the Acquisitions Fund. Note: Fletcher Benton began his artistic career as a painter. He was very interested in incorporating motorized movement into his two dimensional works, so it serves as no surprise that he eventually felt compelled to explore the realm of sculpture. Benton first started creating forms by folding paper. The three dimensional designs that resulted from this practice inspired him to create his “Folded Square Alphabet” series in the 1970s, as seen in this lot. While the sculpture offered here is stationary, its dynamic dimensionality cannot be denied. The form of the piece appears to change at every angle, revealing Benton’s precise control over planes and space and alluding to his earlier inclination towards kinetic art. In 1993, while installing a monumental piece in the city of Cologne, Germany, the artist saw an exhibition on Malevich and came across a model of Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International. As Peter Selz writes in his profile of the artist, “[Benton] became convinced of something he had only assumed before: he was a disciple of Constructivism." Ref.: Selz, Peter. “Geometric Sculpture in Equilibrium: Fletcher Benton”. Sculpture Magazine. 24.5 (2004).